Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Switzerland	
Main trait group1 NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Udder Health	
Breed(s)	Holstein (CHE)	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2 Attach an appendix if needed	Somatic cell score: expressed as average daily score	
Method of measuring and collecting data		
Time period for data inclusion	Cows which first calved since January 1, 1994, Pedigree is traced back 3 generations from that date	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	All parities	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Includes all test day records between 5 and 365 days in milk (DIM). 	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	No extension of records is required
	
Sire categories	All bulls	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	Heterogeneous herd-test day variance adjustment, adjustment factors are estimated every run	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	MT (milk yield, fat yield, protein yield, somatic cell score) – ML (1, 2, 3+) - RR – TD -BLUP– AM.  Later lactations (4 and up) are considered to be genetically the same as third lactation, permanent environmental effects in lactation 6 and later are assumed to be the same as 5th lactation.	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Fixed: Herd-test day
Regression on DIM within Parity - Age of calving - Region - Time Period - Season combination (6th order polynomials).
Random: Animal lactation curve, lactation curve for permanent environment (4th oder polynomials).	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	Yes, see pre-adjustments	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Phantom parent groups are defined based on ancestry, birth year, breed and selection pathway	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	See appendix PR	
System validation	Method 3	
Expression of genetic evaluations If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	RBV: EBVs for average score within each lactation are averaged across lactations and then standardized to a mean of 100 and a genetic standard deviation of 12. Sign is changed such that high RBVs are desirable: RBV = 100 + (-12) * ((EBV – mean EBV of base animals) / genetic standard deviation) 	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Rolling base yearly updated in May, defined by cows born 6 to 8 calendar years ago, that have test day records included in the genetic evaluation: e.g. April 2011: cows born 2003 to 2005	
Calculation of reliability	Similar to the procedure used to calculate EDC’s	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	All bulls: 65 % reliability of EBV for SCS and published proof for production traits.	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3	
Use in total merit index4	8%	
Anticipated changes in the near future	none	
Key reference on methodology applied	Schaeffer, L. R., J. Jamrozik, G. J. Kistemaker, and B. J. Van Doormaal. 1999. Experience with a test day model. J. Dairy Sci. (Abstract & to be submitted for publication)  Jamrozik, J., L. R. Schaeffer, and F. Grignola. 1998. Genetic parameters for production traits and somatic cell score of Canadian Holsteins with multiple trait random regression model. 6WCGALP. 23:303-306. Jamrozik, J., L. R. Schaeffer, Z. Liu, and G. Jansen. 1997. Multiple trait random regression test day model for production traits. Interbull Bulletin No. 16:43.	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	Evaluation Center:
Qualitas AG
Chamerstrasse 56, CH-6300 Zug, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0)41 768 92 92
Fax: +41 (0)41 768 92 99
e-mail: zws@qualitasag.ch
Internet: http://www.qualitasag.ch

EBV’s published by herdbook organisation:
Holstein Association of Switzerland
Route de Grangeneuve 27, CH-1725 Posieux
http://www.holstein.ch	
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 SM

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

Country (or countries):		
Main trait group:	Health	
Breed(s):		

Trait	h2a	genetic
variancea	official proof
standardisation formulab	
Milk Somatic Cell:
	0.24	0.319	a = 0; c = -12; b = 0.5857; d = 100	
Clinical Mastitis:
				
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.

Lactation heritabilities (diagonal), 305d PE correlations (above diagonal) and 305d genetic correlations (below diagonal) for Holstein breed.
 	M1	F1	P1	SCS1	M2	F2	P2	SCS2	M3	F3	P3	SCS3	
 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
M1	.38	.88	.95	-.14	.52	.42	.52	.00	.46	.31	.43	.08	
F1	.56	.33	.91	-.09	.39	.49	.46	.01	.34	.41	.40	.06	
P1	.88	.66	.33	-.11	.51	.48	.57	-.01	.43	.36	.47	.05	
SCS1	.16	.04	.14	.23	-.06	-.03	-.06	.35	-.04	-.01	-.02	.28	
M2	.74	.39	.63	.03	.42	.87	.95	-.20	.49	.35	.47	-.02	
F2	.35	.77	.42	-.05	.61	.39	.91	-.22	.37	.47	.44	-.06	
P2	.61	.49	.71	.03	.88	.71	.38	-.18	.49	.44	.55	-.01	
SCS2	.11	.02	.11	.54	-.04	-.07	-.02	.25	-.09	-.10	-.09	.54	
M3	.69	.35	.59	.08	.86	.51	.76	.03	.40	.84	.95	-.15	
F3	.30	.70	.38	.00	.47	.85	.58	-.03	.63	.35	.90	-.20	
P3	.53	.44	.62	.07	.71	.60	.83	.03	.88	.75	.36	-.15	
SCS3	.08	.00	.06	.51	-.08	-.10	-.10	.63	-.08	-.11	-.08	.25	

Heritability, Genetic and permanent environmental variances
(milk, fat, protein – 305d yield (kg2), SCS – average daily score).
Combined values are submitted to Interbull

Effect	Trait	Lactation	Variance	
Genetic	Milk	1	339,311	
		2	511,162	
		≥ 3	638,642	
		Combined	417,816	
	Fat	1	476	
		2	942	
		≥ 3	1,215	
		Combined	728	
	Protein	1	246	
		2	395	
		≥ 3	498	
		Combined	306	
	SCS	1	.377	
		2	.419	
		≥ 3	.566	
		Combined	.319	
Permanent	Milk	1	419,494	
Environment		2	598,481	
		≥ 3	534,058	
	Fat	1	590	
		2	811	
		≥ 3	793	
	Protein	1	352	
		2	493	
		≥ 3	468	
	SCS	1	.808	
		2	.955	
		≥ 3	.743	
Heritability	Milk	Combined	.40	
	Fat	Combined	.36	
	Protein	Combined	.36	
	SCS	Combined	.24