Status as of: 2017-08-31

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Estonia	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Health	
Breed(s)	Estonian Holstein (HOL), Estonian Red (RDC)	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	Trait: Somatic Cell Score (SCS)
Somatic Cell Count (SCC), collected by official milk recording organisations according to ICAR rules is transformed to SCS by formula
SCS= log2(SCC/100000)+3
An overall EBV for SCS is combined from EBVs of the first three lactations, using index weights of 0.26, 0.37 and 0.37  for EBVs of lactations 1, 2 and 3 respectively.	
Method of measuring and collecting data	All valid test day records between 5 and 365 days in milk for animals with a known sire registration number and dam registration number, having at least 2 first test day records (first test day record between 5 and 100 days in milk)	
Time period for data inclusion	Since October 1, 1994	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	3	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Test day
SCC(1000)  between 5 and 9999	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	-	
Sire categories	All	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	No pre-adjustment for environmental effects 	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	ST-ML-RR-TD-BLUP-AM 	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	F: Herd test day effect within 1st lactation, 2nd and 3rd lactation combined
F: Lactation curves defined by lactation number*breed*calving age  class* calving season*calving year class
(total 3*2*5*2*8=480 different curves)
R: Permanent environment effect of a cow within lactation	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No adjustment for heterogeneous variance	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Phantom parent groups are defined separately for Estonian versus foreign ancestry according to breed, sex and year of birth of the animal	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	-	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	see PAGE 3 for heritability/genetic variance estimates; for multiple-trait genetic evaluations, provide genetic correlation estimates between traits separately	
System validation	Correlations with previous evaluations and monitoring of Mendelian sampling, analysis of results of 'verification' program	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	Relative Milk Somatic Cell (SSAV) = RBV(100/12), using (-1)*EBVs	
Definition of genetic reference base

Next base change	EBV: all cows born 2010
RBV: AI bulls (with at least 20 daughters in at least 3 herds) born 8-13 
(for Estonian Holstein) or 8-17 (for Estonian Red) years before evaluation (yearly rolling base)
EBV: August 2020 -> all cows born in 2015
	
Calculation of reliability	Using multiple trait effective daughter contribution method	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	At least 20 daughters in at least 3 herds with reliability >= 0.70	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3: April, August, December	
Use in total merit index4	25% weight on SSAV in total merit index (SKAV)	
Anticipated changes in the near future	-	
Key reference on methodology applied	Liu, Z., Reinhardt, F., and Reents, R. 2000. Estimating parameters of a   random regression test day model for first three lactation milk production traits using the covariance function approach. Interbull Bulletin 25:74-80.
Liu, Z., Reinhardt, F., and Reents, R. 2000. Parameter estimates of a   random regression test day model for first three lactation somatic cell scores. Interbull Bulletin 26:61-65.
Liu, Z., Reinhardt, F., Bünger, A., Dopp, L., and Reents, R. 2001. Application of a random regression model to genetic evaluations of test day yields and somatic cell scores in dairy cattle. 
Interbull Bulletin 27:159-166.
Liu, Z., Reinhardt, F., and Reents, R. 2001. The effective daughter contribution concept applied to multiple trait models for approximating reliability of estimated breeding values. Interbull Bulletin 27:41-47.
Reinhardt, F., Liu, Z., Bünger, A., Dopp, L., and Reents, R. 2002. Impact of application of a random regression test day model to production trait genetic evaluations in dairy cattle. 
Interbull Bulletin 29:103-107.	
Key organization: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	Animal Recording Centre
48a Kreutzwaldi Str.
50094 Tartu
Estonia
Phone: +372 7 387 731
Fax:     +372 7 387 702
e-mail: mart.uba@epj.ee
web site: http://www.epj.ee	
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 for national genetic evaluations for udder health traits as provided to Interbull

Country (or countries):	Estonia	
Main trait group:	Health	
Breed(s):	Estonian Holstein (HOL), Estonian Red (RDC)	

Trait	h2a	genetic
variancea	official proof
standardisation formulab	
Milk Somatic Cell:
Lactations
1st:
2nd:
3rd:	0.23

 0.16
 0.16
 0.17	0.147

0.132
0.148
0.173	Estonian Holstein:
RBV=(EBV-0.1332)/0.4688*12*(-1)+ 100

Estonian Red:
RBV=(EBV-(-0.0274))/0.4940*12*(-1)+ 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.

Table 1. Genetic parameters for somatic cell scores on daily basis with heritabilities on diagonal, genetic correlations above diagonal and phenotypic correlations below diagonal
Somatic cell score
Lactation	1st lactation	2nd lactation	3rd lactation	
1st lactation	.16	.95	.89	
2nd lactation	.34	.16	.97	
3rd lactation	.28	.42	.17