Status as of: 2013-1-15

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	SPAIN	
Main trait group1
	HEALTH	
Breed(s)	HOLSTEIN	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
	Milk Somatic Cell Count	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Somatic cell score=log base 2(SCC+ 100.000)+3 where SCC is somatic cell score per milimiter
	
Time period for data inclusion	Calvings from 1986 (but different first year of data on each region)	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	First five parities with equal weights.	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Only records from oficial milk recording, herdbook and both parentes known	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)		
Sire categories	All	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	Month of test within parity (first or later) and stage of lactation  within parity (first or later)	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	ST BLUP RP AM	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Flexible HYS (F), Parity x Age within period(F), Calving Month within period(F)
Permanent environmental effect (R )	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Phantom groups for unknown parents	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	Heritability=0.175 and repeteability=0.37	
System validation	Proof. Correlation with previous evaluation. Means and Standard deviations.	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	RBV with average 100 and STD=10	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Cows born in 2005
Next change: 2015	
Calculation of reliability	Yes	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	20 daughters in 10 herds for national bulls. For foreign bulls, 75 daughters and 50 herds.	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	Two: June and December	
Use in total merit index4	With a 3% weight	
Anticipated changes in the near future		
Key reference on methodology applied	Schutz, M. . 1994. Genetic Evaluation of Somatic Cell Scores for United States Dairy Cattle. J. Dairy Sci. 77:2113.	
Key organization: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	CONAFE
Apartado de correos 31
Valdemoro 28340
Madrid
Spain
Phone:0034918952412
Fax: 0034918951471
e-mail:genetica@conafe.com
web: www.conafe.com
	
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).

Parameters used in genetic evaluation

Country (or countries):	SPAIN	
Main trait group:	HEALTH	
Breed (repeat as necessary):	HOLSTEIN	

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
SCC	milk somatic cell count	

X	0.175	0.2273	a=0
b=0. 42
c=-10
d=100	
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