Status as of: 2017-04-04

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	  GBR	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Udder Health	
Breed(s)	HOL, RDC, JER, GUE, BSW & SIM. All breeds evaluated in a multi-breed animal model	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	 Somatic cell counts (SCC)   in  *1000/ml of milk. SCC analyzed as Log (SCC).  
Mastitis in the first 3 parities coded as a binary trait within each lactation	
Method of measuring and collecting data	National milk recording organizations collect data as part of normal milk recording service	
Time period for data inclusion	1991  till present	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Parities 1 to 5 for SCC . Parities  1 to 3 for Mastitis	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Records from non-identified sires excluded. Edits on breeds, age, date of birth, months, duplicates, identity of sires, dams and cows and recording schemes are implement.	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	Not applicable	
Sire categories	All sires	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	None	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	Repeatability animal model on the first 5 parities for SCC
Bivariate repeatability animal model for Mastitis based on first 3 parity records for SCC and mastitis	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Herd-year, calving month, calving age nested within lactation number,  and heterosis and recombination fitted for four breed groups (Holstein, Friesians, Red breeds and Others)	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	None	
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  below
	
System validation	Extensive checks and validation on input  data and results. Comparison of consecutive evaluations. Interbull trend validation test I, II and III. Evaluations are done within an ICAR certified   process	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	Predicted transmitting abilities on a percentage scale for SCC and mastitis	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	2010 Cow base for each breed
                         
2020 using cows born in 2015	
Calculation of reliability	Method of Misztal I., and Wiggans, G.R. 1988  (Journal Dairy Science, 27-32)	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Bulls with at least 30 percent reliability	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	Three runs per year	
Use in total merit index4	Not yet but is anticipated	
Anticipated changes in the near future	The use of a random regression model and joint analysis with mastitis data	
Key reference on methodology applied	Pritchard, T., Coffey, M., Mrode R. and Wall, E. 2013. Genetic parameters for production, health, fertility and longevity
traits in dairy cows. Animal 7,34–46
Mrode, R.A., Swanson, G.J.T., Winters, M.S., 1998. Genetic parameters and evaluations for somatic cell counts and its relationship with production and type traits in some dairy breeds in the UK. Anim. Sci. 66, 569–576.
	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	EGENES, SRUC,  Roslin Institute  Building, Easter Bush, Edinburgh
EH25 9RG

 Mike Coffey mike.coffey@sruc.ac.uk ; https://www.sruc.ac.uk/info/120275/egenes
Marco Winters Marco.Winters@ahdb.org.uk
https://dairy.ahdb.org.uk/technical-information/breeding-genetics/#.WOPHgvkrKUk	
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):	GBR	
Main trait group:	Udder Health	
Breed(s):	HOL, RDC, JER, GUE & BSW	

Trait	h2a	genetic
variancea	official proof
standardisation formulab	
Milk Somatic Cell:
Mastitis:                         	0.11
0.036	959.90
47.903		

				
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 SCC and Mastitis from the bivariate analysis with heritabilities on diagonals, genetic correlations below diagonals

Trait	Genetic variance		
Somatic Cell count	 798.44	0.15
0.65           0.036	
Mastitis	 47.903