DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEM

Country (or countries):	ITALY	
Main trait group:	Production	
Breed(s):	JERSEY	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement 
Attach an appendix if needed	ME 305-days milk, fat and protein yield, fat and protein %	
Method of measuring and collecting data	ICAR’s A4 or AT methods	
Criteria for extension of records	Records with non-identified parents are used with separate genetic groups.
Records in progress are extended to 305 days from 120 days of lactation using last test day method.
Naturally terminated lactations: records less than 200 days are discarded; records = 200 and < 305 days are extended to 305 days using same coefficients and method used for records in progress. 
	
Time period for data inclusion	Cows born since 1980, calving since 1983	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	First and later parities	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	At least 2 contemporaries per herd-year-season-parity groups	
Sire categories	All sire, NS = 7 %, AI (including imported bulls)=93%	
Environmental effectsa, pre-adjustments 	- Lactation length (extension of records to 305 days as previously described)
- Number of milkings per day (base is two)
- Age and month of calving
- 72 month of age (last updated 2000), calving in February 	
Method (model) of genetic evaluationa	ST – ML – BLUP – AM
	
Environmental effectsa in the genetic evaluation model	Fixed: Herd-year-season-parity groups
Random: PE	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	NO	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Fixed genetic groups when parents are missing based on birth year, country of origin (ITA known first generation pedigree, ITA unknown first generation pedigree, Europe,USA + Canada)	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	YES	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	see PART 3 for heritability/genetic variance estimates; for multiple-trait genetic evaluations, provide genetic correlation estimates between traits separately	
System validation	Checks on trend (Consistency with previous runs, Interbull Method 1 and 2), checks on variability per first publication date, major changes for bulls (all sources of  variations) and cows. EBV correlations.
	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in PART 3	EBV	
Definition of genetic (reference) base
Next base change	Cows born in 1995

January 2005 (cows born in 2000)	
Calculation of reliability	K. Meyer’s Method	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Reliability > 70	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	4
end of: January, April, July, October	
Use in total merit indexb	IQJ = 1,42 x (-0.034 x milk kg + 2.40 x fat kg).	
Anticipated changes in the near future	To be decided	
Key reference on methodology applied	Wiggans G.R., Misztal I. & Van Vleck L.D., 1998. Implementation of an Animal
Model for genetic evaluation of Dairy cattle in the United States. J. Dairy Sci., 71
(Suppl. 2): 54-69.
Meyer K., 1989. Approximate Accuracy of Genetic Evaluation under an Animal
Model. Livestock Prod. Sci., 21: 87-100.	
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, stefanobiffani@anafi.it
web site: http://www.anafi.it/Jersey/	
a	Use abbreviations for most common effects (see document with list of abbreviations at http://www-interbull.slu.se/service_documentation/General/framesida-general.htm) and indicate random (R) or fixed (F)
b	Please give economic weights and indicate how they are expressed (preferably in genetic standard deviation units).

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEM AND
TREND VALIDATION FOR PRODUCTION TRAITS

Country (or countries):	ITALY	
Breed(s):	JERSEY	

Trait	h2a	genetic
variancea	official proof
standardisation formulab	
Milk yield:

	0.30	225730		
Fat yield:

	0.30	621		
Protein yield:

	0.30	302		
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.