Status as of: 2019-04-16

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	France	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Calving Ease
	
Breed(s)	Holstein and Pie Rouge (HOL), Montbéliarde, Normande, Simmental Française, Brune (BSW), Abondance, Tarentaise, Vosgienne. Each breed evaluated separately	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	1. Ease of Birth (direct effect)
2. Ease of Calving (maternal effect)
3. Stillbirth (with direct and maternal effect) = dead at birth or within 24 hours	
Method of measuring and collecting data	1-2 Calving scores, expressed on a scale from 1 to 5: 1=no assistance, 2=easy pulling, 3=difficult calving, 4=caesarean, 5=embryotomy. The last 2 categories are analysed together with code 3.
In HOL:70.7% codes 1, 23.9 % codes 2, 5.4 % codes >=3
3. 0/1 trait  
Code 1= dead: 5.2% and 4.7% for HOL and Montbéliarde   	
Time period for data inclusion	Score given by the calf owner, recorded at the same time as the Identification of the calves.	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Parities 1-9	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	1-2 Records since 1990. Twins are excluded.
3. Records since 1999. Herds are not included as long as they don’t have reported at least one death. Region/year combinations with < 3% stillbirth (<2.5% in Montbéliarde) are excluded.  Twins are excluded.	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)		
Sire categories	All sires	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	None	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	1-2: Heteroskedastic threshold model
3: Threshold model	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Sex of calf (2) by parity-age (14) (F); month-year (F); Region (82)-Year (F); HYSeason (R) (Numbers in parentheses = number of levels)	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	1-2: Residual variances: described on a logarithmic scale with the effects of month (12), year of calving (26), sex of calf (2), region (82) and parity-age class (14).
3: No	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Sire of calf, Sire of Dam (both with relationship matrix). 
Genetic groups defined by country of origin, birth year, sex of unknown parent .	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	1-2. On the underlying scale:
HOL: Direct: h²=5.6%; Maternal: h²=3.2%
Montbéliarde: Direct: h²=7.8%; Maternal: h²=3.7%
Other breeds: Direct: h²=7.4%; Maternal: h²=4.3%
Varg sire = HOL: 1.99 (direct); 1.57 (Maternal); Montbéliarde: 2.12 (direct); 1.31 (Maternal); Normande: 1.99 (direct) 1.57 (Maternal); Other breeds: 1.99 (Direct); 1.57 (Maternal).
3. On the underlying scale:
HOL: Direct: h²=3.0%; Maternal: h²=6.6%
Montbéliarde: Direct: h²=5.9%; Maternal: h²=5.8%
Varg sire = HOL: 0.79 (direct); 1.87 (Maternal); Montbéliarde: 1.53 (direct); 1.73 (Maternal); Normande: 1.05 (Direct); 1.32 (Maternal); Other Breeds: 1.53 (direct); 1.73 (Maternal).	
System validation	Model selection comparing goodness-of-fit criteria of several (40) models (see Ducrocq, 2000).	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	1-2. EBV, % of expected easy calvings (codes 1 & 2) from 1st parity dams, assuming a sex ratio of 50%. The expected % of easy calvings are standardized to a 89% mean for the bulls of the male rolling base.
3. EBV, % of expected calves alive from 1st parity dams, assuming a sex ratio of 50%. The expected % of calves alive are standardized to a 92% mean for the bulls of the male rolling base.	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	HOL, Montbéliarde and Normande: EBV of AI bulls progeny tested in France, born between years (n-12) and (n-9), with at least 20 offsprings for birth conditions (NAI) and 20 daughters for calving conditions (VEL)
Other breeds: BV of AI bulls born between years (n-14) and (n-9), with at least 20 offsprings for birth conditions (NAI) and 20 daughters for calving conditions (VEL)

No more base change for calving and stillbirth traits	
Calculation of reliability	1- PEV/sg, where PEV is obtained as the diagonal element of the inverse of the coefficient matrix for a simplified threshold model with Sire, MGS, sex*parity, month*year, region*year	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Bulls progeny tested in France, with a reliability of at least 50% for HOL, Montbéliarde and Normande; 35% for the others	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3 (April, August, December)	
Use in total merit index4	No	
Anticipated changes in the near future		
Key reference on methodology applied	Ducrocq V., 2000: Calving Ease Evaluation of French Dairy Bulls with a heteroskedastic Threshold Model with Direct and Maternal effects. Interbull Bull. 20, pp123-130
 (The stillbirth evaluation follows the calving ease evaluation : same recording time, same software, same model (except for heterogeneous residual model which is not needed for Stillbirth as there are only two categories) )
Journaux L, Ledos H, Mathevon M,  Mattalia S,  Leudet O, Organization of recording and control of data used in France to evaluate calving ease and birth weight in dairy and beef cattle. ICAR Meeting 26-31st May 2002, Interlaken (Switzerland). 33rd ICAR Session.	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	Computing: 
GenEval
Evaluation génétique des animaux d’élevage
3 rue du Petit Robinson
F78350 Jouy-en-Josas 
Mail: contact.international@geneval.fr
Phone : +33 (0) 1 85 36 05 05
Web site : https://www.geneval.fr/

Publishing:
Institut de l’Elevage
149 Rue de Bercy
F75595 Paris cedex 12
Mail: sophie.mattalia@idele.fr
Web site : www.idele.fr	
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):	France	
Main trait group:	Calving Ease	
Breed (repeat as necessary):	HOL, BSW	

Trait	Breed	h2	Sire genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formula*	
Direct Calving Ease (underlying scale)	HOL	0.056	1.99	a=  0
 b=1  et c= 1  , d= rolling base (computed at each release)	
	BSW	0.074	1.99	a=  0
 b=1  et c= 1  , d= rolling base (computed at each release)	
Maternal  Calving Ease (underlying scale)	HOL	0.032	1.57	a=  0
 b=1  et c= 1  , d= rolling base (computed at each release)	
	BSW	0.043	1.57	a=  0
 b=1  et c= 1  , d= rolling base (computed at each release)	
Direct Stillbirth (underlying scale) 	HOL	0.030	0.79	a=  0
 b=1  et c= 1  , d= rolling base (computed at each release)	
	BSW	0.059	1.53	a=  0
 b=1  et c= 1  , d= rolling base (computed at each release)	
Maternal  Stillbirth (underlying scale)	HOL	0.066	1.87	a=  0
 b=1  et c= 1  , d= rolling base (computed at each release)	
	BSW	0.058	1.73	a=  0
 b=1  et c= 1  , d= rolling base (computed at each release)	
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.