Status as of: 2014-11-22

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	United  Kingdom	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	 Longevity (Direct)	
Breed(s)	HOL, SHO, AYR (RDC), JER, GUE, BSW & SIM all  breeds and crossbreds  evaluated together  in a multi-breed evaluation	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	 Lifespan score computed from number of lactations completed up to the 5th lactation. Censoring was accounted by computing lifespan from survival probabilities of survival given that cow has already competed n lactations. Herd life score was computed from mammary and legs and feet composites, fore-udder attachment and somatic cell count 	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Number of lactations and somatic cell counts taken from milk records from by ICAR approved recording organisations (NMR & HUK).
Conformation data obtained from the various breed societies	
Time period for data inclusion	Cows born since 1975  apart from Holstein (1980)	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Data  up to the 5th lactation	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Data used has been subject to the edits described for production and conformation traits.	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	  NA	
Sire categories	All sires	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	None	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	BLUP Bivariate Animal  model	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Lifespan score: herd year, month of calving, age at calving with milk as covariates.
Herd life: herd visit, month of calving, age at calving and stage of lactation
Heterosis and recombination among four main breed groups(Holstein, Friesians, Red breeds and Others) for both traits.	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Unknown parent are  grouped according to country of origin, selection pathway and  breed type	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	Interbull evaluations are published for national and foreign bulls. The Interbull evaluations of foreign bulls  are incorporated into their progeny through  adjustment of the parent average	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	See  Appendix GE 
	
System validation	Interbull methods 2 and 3. Trend monitoring and comparison with previous runs	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	 Number of lactations - PTA	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	2004 Cow base for each breed
                         
2015 using cows born in 2010	
Calculation of reliability	Method of Misztal I., and Wiggans, G.R. 1988  (Journal Dairy Science, 27-32	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	 Reliability ≥ 20%	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	Three	
Use in total merit index4	Profitable lifetime index (PLI)  =  PTA milk *-0.027 + PTA fat *0.08 + PTA protein *1.71 + PTA lifespan *25.4 + PTA  SCC * -0.19 + EBV  Feet & Legs * 1.13 + EBV Mammary * 1.18 + PTA NR56 * 2.16 + PTA CI * -0.35	
Anticipated changes in the near future	Use of days of productive life and inclusion of more indirect traits	
Key reference on methodology applied	Brotherstone, S, Veerkamp, R.F  and Hill, W.G.(1997). J Animal Science . 67: 31-37	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	EGENES, SRUC  Research
Roslin Institute Building
Bush Estate
Midlothian
Scotland, UK
EH26  9RG
Tel:  +44 -131-535-3241
Fax:  +44-131-535-3121
E-mail: mike.coffey@sruc.ac.uk
Internet:  www.egenes.co.uk
	
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 LO

Parameters for national genetic evaluations for longevity traits as provided to Interbull

Country (or countries):	GBR	
Main trait group:	Longevity	
Breed(s):	HOL, RDC, JER, GUE, & BSW	

Trait	h2	genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formulaa	
Direct longevity:
	0.06	0.335		
				
a	If lactations, or part of lactations, are treated as separate traits, provide heritability estimates and genetic variances separately for each lactation, as well as for all lactations 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.