Status as of: 2022-05-10

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Japan	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Female Fertility	
Breed(s)	Holstein	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	HCR: heifer’s conception rate
CCR: cow’s conception rate at first lactation
DO: days between calving and conception	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Inseminations are collected by DHI	
Time period for data inclusion	First insemination day from 1990	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Heifer and first lactation 	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Sire of cow must be identified.
Allowed ranges of age of first insemination for heifer and first lactations are 8-26 and 20-46 months, respectively.
Interval calving to first insemination: more less 365 days
If the first insemination record is Embryo Transfer, it is discarded.	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	No	
Sire categories	All	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	No	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	MT-AM	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Fixed effects: Herd-year at first insemination, Month at first insemination and  Age at first insemination
Random effects: Service Sire	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Unknown parents grouped by sex, country of origin and year	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No	
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, LO, CA, as applicable, if you participate in the international genetic evaluations of Interbull	
System validation		
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	EBV, % for HCR and CCR, and days for DO	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	5-year stepwise, average EBV of cows born in 2015

2025	
Calculation of reliability	 Using  multiple trait effective daughter contribution method (Liu et al., 2004)	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Must have both ≧15 daughters in ≧10 herds for both production and conformation. Recognized bulls by the national dairy sire progeny test program only. Interbull evaluations are published for foreign bulls with reliability >=75(milk) and >=60(overall conformation), however, treated as unofficial.	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	2/2, February, August	
Use in total merit index4	DO: 6% of total in Nippon Total Profit index	
Anticipated changes in the near future		
Key reference on methodology applied		
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	National evaluation center: National Livestock Breeding Center, IAI
1 Odakurahara, Nishigo, Nishi-Shirakawa, Fukushima, 961-8511, JAPAN
Tel: +81-248-25-4904
Fax: +81-248-25-3982
Web: http://www.nlbc.go.jp/
Contact: data analysis div. to: nlbc_japan@nlbc.go.jp	
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):	Japan	
Main trait group:	Female Fertility	
Breed (repeat as necessary):	Holstein	

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
Heifer conception rate (HCR)		X	0.016	0.00326	a=0, b=1, c=1, d = 62	
Cow conception rate (CCR)		X	0.020	0.00448	a=0, b=1, c=1, d = 42	
Days open (DO)		X	0.053	252.100	a=0, b=1, c=1, d = 138	
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.

Genetic correlations used in national multiple evaluation
Trait name	CCR	DO	
Heifer conception rate (HCR)	0.429	-0.304	
Cow conception rate (CCR)		-0.755	

 
Form GE	Appendix CA

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

Country (or countries):	Japan	
Main trait group:	Female Fertility	
Breed(s):	Holstein	

Trait	h2	genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formulaa	
Trait 1: Maiden heifer’s ability to conceive
Heifer conception rate (HCR)	
0.016	
0.016	
a=0, b=1, c=1, d = 62	
Trait 2: Lactating cow’s ability to start cycling

	
	
Trait 3: Lactating cow’s ability to conceive 1
Cow conception rate (CCR)	
0.020	
0.00448	
a=0, b=1, c=1, d = 42	
Trait 4: Lactating cow’s ability to conceive 2
Days open (DO)	
0.053	
252.100	
a=0, b=1, c=1, d = 138	
Trait 5: Lactating cow’s interval calving-conception 
Days open (DO)	
0.053	
252.100	
a=0, b=1, c=1, d = 138	
a	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.