Status as of: 2021-02-04

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	BELGIUM (Walloon Region)	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Health	
Breed(s)	All dairy and dual-purpose breeds	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	Somatic Cell Score
SCS = [log2 (SCC/100000)] + 3
EBV are average 1-d score across lactation 1,2 and 3	
Method of measuring and collecting data	SCC through regular milk recording (A4 or A6)	
Time period for data inclusion	Since 1979 (included, calving date)	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	3 parities	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Valid birth date, time frame
10,000<SCC<10,000,000; SCS<0.1 put to 0.1	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	No extension	
Sire categories	All sires	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	N/A	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	Weighted MT-ML-TDM-RR-AM 
Record weights are proportional to mastitis infection likelihood. (SCS that are above expected SCS levels based on standardized residuals have higher weights and SCS that are below expected levels have lower weights)	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Herd-test-day (F), Minor stage of lactation (F), Major stage of lactation x Age x Season (F), Stage of lactation x Days carried calf (F), PE (R)	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Yes, genetics groups based on selection path, type of breed, degree of Holsteinisation, origin (North-America vs Europe) and time	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No before INTERBULL, yes after	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	See Appendices GE and SM	
System validation	Trend validations (Method III) & Mendelian Sampling test validation	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	RBV
(average 100, SD 10)	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	SD for all cows with SCS born in 2015 used to standardize to 10 points

In 2025 cows born in 2020	
Calculation of reliability	Based on INTERBULL EDC computations	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Sire needs to have production evaluation
REL  45% for: 
•	young sires
•	imported sires if domestic results
•	imported sires with INTERBULL results	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3	
Use in total merit index4	V€G= V€L + V€F + V€T
V€G= V€L + V€F + V€T
V€L= -0.06 EBVmilk + 3.62 EBVfat + 4.00 EBVprot
V€F 1.79 * RBVSCS + 1.79 RBVlong + 1.79 * RBVfert + 0.89 * RBVCEd + 0.89 * RBVCEm 
-	all functional traits expressed on a 10-unit scale, means of 100 subtracted
-	coefficients only approximate as computations done using selection index procedure estimating jointly V€F, combined RBVlong and combined RBVfert from EBVs for direct longevity, indirect longevity, SCS, indirect fertility and calving ease traits.
V€T= V€M + V€C + V€P
V€M= -4.11 RBVrear leg set + (2.06 RBVrear leg rear view) + (10.54 RBVbone quality) + (9.00 RBVfeet&legs)
V€C=-4.32 RBVoverall development + 11.11 RBVudder corrected final conformation
V€P= 8.64 RBVfore udder + 14.19 RBVrear udder height + 5.55 RBVudder support + 14.19 RBVudder depth + 2.47 RBVfront teat placement + (-11.11 RBVrear teat placement ) + (-5.55 RBVteat length)	
Anticipated changes in the near future	Improvement of weights, heterogeneous variance	
Key reference on methodology applied	Gengler, N. and Mayeres, P. [2003]. Use of a weighted random regression test-day model to better relate observed somatic cell score to masticis infection likelihood. INTERBULL Bulletin 31: 92-96.
Croquet C, Mayeres P., Gillon A., Vanderick S., and Gengler N. (2006). Inbreeding Depression for Global and Partial Economic Indexes, Production, Type, and Functional Traits. J. Dairy Sci.  89: 2257-2267. 
Vanderick S., Croquet C., Soyeurt H., Hammami H., Mayeres P., Gengler N. (2006). Integration of longevity into the Walloon genetic evaluation system. INTERBULL Bulletin 35.
	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	Organisation responsible for genetic evaluations:
Association Wallonne de l’Elevage Asbl (awé)
4, rue des Champs Elysées
B-5590 Ciney

Computing center
University of Liège (ULiège)
Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (GxABT)
Agriculture, Bio-engineering and Chemistry Department
Animal Science Unit
Numerical Genetics, Genomics and Modeling 
Passage des Déportés, 2
B-5030 Gembloux
Belgium

Phone: + 32/81/622206
Fax:     + 32/81/622115
E-mail : nicolas.gengler@ulg.ac.be  
WEB site for publication of sire breeding values:
              http://www.elinfo.be	
1) Either: Production (e.g. milk, fat, protein), Conformation, Health (e.g. mastitis resistance, milk somatic cell, resistance to diseases other than mastitis), Longevity, Calving (e.g. stillbirth, calving ease), Female fertility (e.g. non-return rate, interval between reproductive events, number of AI’s, heat strength), Workability (e.g. milking speed, temperament), Beef production, Efficiency (e.g. body weight, energy balance, body conditioning score), or Other traits.
2) Indicate frequencies per category if the trait is categorical and specify transformation of data if practiced.
3) Use abbreviations for most common effects (see document with list of abbreviations at http://www-interbull.slu.se/service_documentation/General/list_of_abbreviations.rtf) and indicate random (R) or fixed (F).
4) Please give economic weights and indicate how they are expressed (preferably in genetic standard deviation units).

Form GE	Appendix GE

Parameters used in genetic evaluation

Country (or countries):	BELGIUM (Walloon Region)	
Main trait group:	Health	
Breed (repeat as necessary):	All dairy and dual-purpose breeds	

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
Milk Somatic Cell 			0.0998	0.1561		
			0.128	0.2147		
			0.162	0.2366		
Pooled 		X	0.135	0.2060	EBV	

						

						

						

						
						
a	Indicate, with X, traits that are submitted to Interbull for international genetic evaluations.
b	If repeated records are treated as separate traits, provide heritability estimates and genetic variances separately for each trait, as well as for all traits pooled, i.e. for the trait submitted to Interbull.
c	Expressed as follows:
StandEval=((eval-a)/b)*c+d where a=mean of the base adjustment, b=standard deviation of the base, c=standard deviation of expression (include sign if scale is reversed), and d=base of expression.

 Form GE	Appendix SM

Parameters for national genetic evaluations for udder health traits as provided to Interbull

Country (or countries):	BELGIUM (Walloon Region)	
Main trait group:	Health	
Breed(s):	All dairy and dual-purpose breeds	

Trait	h2a	genetic
variancea	official proof
standardisation formulab	
Milk Somatic Cell:

Pooled	0.0998
0.128
0.162
0.135	0.1561
0.2147
0.2366
0.2060	

EBV	
Clinical Mastitis:
	N/A			
a	If repeated records are treated as separate traits, provide heritability estimates and genetic variances separately for each trait, as well as for all traits pooled, i.e. for the trait submitted to Interbull.
b	Expressed as follows:
StandEval=((eval-a)/b)*c+d where a=mean of the base adjustment, b=standard deviation of the base, c=standard deviation of expression (include sign if scale is reversed), and d=base of expression.

TABLE: Genetic correlations above, phenotypic below and heritabilities on diagonal.

	SCS1	SCS2	SCS3	
SCS1	0.0998	0.949	0.879	
SCS2	0.311	0.128	0.950	
SCS3	0.337	0.424	0.162