Status as of: 2017-12-11

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	ITALY	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	UDDER HEALTH	
Breed(s)	HOLSTEIN	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	SCS Data: Records are SCC within a 24-hour test day period and ETA are average daily SCS across lactations 1, 2 and 3
Udder health: composite index derived by an alternative way of using SCC information. The single traits derived to create the composite are those that were strongly correlated with presence of clinical mastitis in a testing-data set. Only first parity cows are considered.	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Results of samples from labs collected by milk recording agencies every four weeks (A or AM/PM)	
Time period for data inclusion	From when available (on average from 1994)	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	SCS data: Parity 1, 2 and 3.
Udder health: only first parity	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	SCS: All tests between 5 and 305 DIM.
Udder health: at least 3 TD SCC within lactation 	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	No extension of records is required	
Sire categories	All	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	SCS: N. of days pregnancy - Heterogeneous herd test day parity, adjustment factors are estimated at every run	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	SCS:Multi-trait (milk, fat and protein yield and SCS) multi-lactation (1,2,3) Random Regression Test Day BLUP Animal Model
Udder health: MT-Animal model 	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	SCS: Fixed: herd test day parity, DIM, regressions on DIM within parity-region-season-age of calving – year of calving (4th order Legendre polynomial). Random: animal lactation curve, lactation curve for permanent environment
Udder health: The fixed effect model used is the following: HYS+Age_at_calving+ Number_of_testdaysSCC_within lacatation	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No, see pre-adjustments	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Phantom parent group are defined separately according to five origins (US, Canada, European, Italian, Italian unknown) according to birth year.	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	None at the moment as the evaluation is not official yet	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	Use Appendix GE for heritability/genetic variance estimates; for multiple-trait genetic evaluations, provide genetic correlation estimates between traits separately.
Use also appendices PR, CO, BCO, SM, as applicable, if you participate in the international genetic evaluations of Interbull	
System validation	SCS and Udder Health; Interbull Method 3 genetic trend validation, residual and Mendelian sampling checks (to be performed).	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	EBV is a combination of the three lactations EBV expressed as RBV:
Combined EBV 
for each trait EBV=-(.33EBV1st + .33EBV2nd +.33EBV3rd)
RBV with average of 100 and SD 5	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Rolling genetic base: cows born between 2009-2011

Planned for April 2018	
Calculation of reliability	LRS	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	For the moment as for the test-day repeatability model if reliability is ge 50%.
A more detailed criterion is to be decided in the future before the official introductions (foreseen for May 2004).	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	April, August, December.	
Use in total merit index4	SCS: Percentile weights: 10% in PFT
Udder Health: not yet included	
Anticipated changes in the near future		
Key reference on methodology applied	Schaeffer, L.R., J. Jamrozik, G.J. Kistemaker, and B.J. Van Doormal. 1999. Experience with a test day model. J. Dairy Sci.
Jamrozik, J., L.R. Schaeffer  and F. Grignola. 1998. Genetic parameter for production traits and somatic cell score of Canadian Holsteins with a multiple trait random regression model. 6WCGALP 23:303-306
Jamrozik, J., L.R. Schaeffer, Z. Liu and G. Jansen. 1997. Multiple trait random regression test day model for production traits. Interbull Bulletin No. 16:43.
Samorè, A.B., P. Boettcher, J. Jamrozik, A. Bagnato and A.F. Groen. 2002. Genetic parameters fro production traits and somatic cell score estimated with a multiple trait random regression model in Italian Holstein. 7WCGALP 29: 63-66.
Kistemaker G.., Canadian test day model using Legendre polynomials. Interbull meeting, August 2003.
Muir B., 2003. Personal communication.	
Key organization: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	ANAFI
Via Bergamo, 292
26100 CREMONA
ITALY
Phone:  +39-0372-4741
Fax:      +39-0372-474203
e-mail: ricercasvil@anafi.it
web site: www.anafi.it      	
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):		
Main trait group:	Health	
Breed(s):		

Trait	h2a	genetic
variancea	official proof
standardisation formulab	
Milk Somatic Cell:
	Pooled: .205
1ST:       .165
2ND:      .211
3RD:      .252	
.359
.414
.599	EBV= -(((EBV-30.94))/0.37)*5.70+100.
	
Clinical Mastitis:
	Combined 0.15 	0,029
	EBV=-(((EBV-1.090))/ 8.320)*5.00+100.	
				
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.