Status as of: 2022-01-04

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Norway	
Main trait group1
NOTE! One trait group per form!	Udder Health	
Breed(s)	Norwegian Red (NRF)	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	Somatic Cell Score: 305-day lactation geometric mean. (This trait is submitted to the Interbull evaluations as both scc and mastitis).
Clinical Mastitis: Recorded veterinary treatments for acute clinical or chronic clinical mastitis in periods of 1st, 2nd and 3rd lactation. 
0=no treatments recorded. 1=one or more treatments recorded.
CM1: 1st lactation,   -15 to 30 days in milk. Treated .0748.
CM2: 1st lactation,  31 to 120 days in milk. Treated .0338.
CM3: 1st lactation,121 to 305 days in milk. Treated .0457.
CM4: 2nd lactation,  -15 to 30 days in milk. Treated .0605.
CM5: 2nd lactation,  31 to 305 days in milk. Treated .0792.
CM6: 3rd lactation,   -15 to 30 days in milk. Treated .0518.
CM7: 3rd lactation,  31 to 305 days in milk. Treated .0602.
CM Index:  0.47*CM1 + 0.22*CM2 + 0.31*CM3
	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Monthly recording of milk yield, and at least every second month milk is sampled for contents and somatic cell count.
A health card for each cow resides on the farm. Veterinarians record all treatments and diagnostics according to a coding system on the health card together with his identity number. The farmer record treatments that he can carry out (not including drugs), together with an identity number signalling farmers treatment. The farmer or the advisor reports the treatment codes from the health cards as events to the herd recording system.	
Time period for data inclusion	1st, 2nd, and 3rd lactation data from 1979 onwards for scc and mas;
4th and 5th lactation data from 2010 onwards for scc.
	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	SCS: 1st to 5th parity. Repeatability animal model.
CM: 1st to 3rd parity. Seven periods in multitrait animal model.	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	SCS: 
1st lactation: 15<age in months<49. 
16-18 joined with 19. 36 joined with 35. 38-48 joined with 37. 

2nd lactation:  25<age in months<62. 
26-30 joined with 31. 50 joined with 49. 52-62 joined with 51.

3rd lactation: 35<age in months<75. 
36-42 joined with 43. 62 joined with 61. 64-75 joined with 63.

4th lactation: 45<age in months<88. 
46-54 joined with 55. 72 joined with 71. 74 joined with 73. 
76-87 joined with 75.

5th lactation: 55<age in months<101. 
56-67 joined with 68. 80 joined with 79. 82 joined with 81.
84 joined with 83. 86-100 joined with 85.

Minimum production level: Min 1 kg at monthly recording and not flagged as diseased at testday. Scc beween 1*10-3 and 6.4*10-6

CM: 
Age at 1st calving 640-1005 days. 
Age at 2nd calving 973-1429 days. 
Age at 3rd  calving 1308-1855 days.
Data from a particular herd by year are discarded if no treatment for any disease was recorded that year (to ensure participation in the health recording system).
Require code for logical sire. (Set by herd recording system at birth. Single AI, or same sire if doble AI at same heath. Reasonable interval between last AI and calving of dam).
Claimed sire must have been in use at time for AI.
	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	SCS: 
Minimum 2 milk recordings with analysis of contents. 
Minimum 45 days of lactation	
Sire categories	One category, AI bulls of NRF.	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	None
	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	SCS: ST-R-AM
CM: MT-AM	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	SCS: 
Year of calving * Month of calving * Parity (F);
Age in months at calving * Parity (F); 
Days open in 10d periods * Parity (F);
Parity * Milking system (F);
Heterozygosity within Parity (FR);
Herd * Year of calving (R);
PE of animal (R).

Year of calving is defined “dynamic”. Most recent year =calvings after (today-465 days). Years before that is 365*n days.

CM: 
Year of calving * Month of calving (F);
Age in months at calving (F);
Herd * Year of calving (R).	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	SCS: Multiplikative precorrection for Age at Calving*Parity.
CM: Data for each trait and parity are standardised within year  (Mean=0, SD=1)	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	SCS: 
Complete additive relationship with inbreeding and genetic groups. 
Missing pedigree grouped by year of birth. 
If unknown sire was possible AI-bull or ancestor of imported AI-bull then 3 years are added. 
If unknown sire was certain AI-bull or possible sire of embryo then 7 years are added.
CM: 
Complete additive relationship with inbreeding. No genetic groups.	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	None	
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	SCS: Extensive checks on data quality, validation methods 1 and 2.
CM: Correlation to previous estimates of EBV. Check on genetic trend.	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	SCS: RBV. Mean=100, SD=12
CM:  Mean=100, SD=12
          RBV = 0.47*CM1 + 0.22*CM2 + 0.31*CM3	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Rolling average of dairy cows born 3 to 8 years previous to current evaluation. Updated at every evaluation.
Standard deviation based on AI-bulls born 5 to 12 years prior to July 1st 2019. Kept constant for the time being.	
Calculation of reliability	Interbull procedure of Mix99.	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Daughters in at least 10 different herds.
At least 50 daughters with phenotype (50 for imported AI-bulls).	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3	
Use in total merit index4	Udder Health index accounts for 13.4% in TMI. 
Contain: SCS (66%) and Clinical Mastitis (34%).	
Anticipated changes in the near future	SCC: Include 5 lactations.	
Key reference on methodology applied	Svendsen, M. (1999). A retrospective study of selection against clinical mast-itis in the Norwegian dairy cow population. Interbull Bulletin no. 23: 99-106.
Svendsen, M. and I.M. A.-Ranberg (2000). Genetic evaluation for functional traits in Norway. Interbull Bulletin no. 25: 135-138.
Svendsen, M. and B. Heringstad (2006). New genetic evaluation for clinical mastitis in multiparous Norwegian Red cows. Interbull Bulletin no. 35: 8-11.
MiX99 Development Team (2017). MiX99: A software package for solving large mixed model equations. Release XI/2017. Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke). Jokioinen, Finland.  http://www.luke.fi/mix99
Strandén, I., M. Lidauer, E.A. Mäntysaari and J. Pösö (2000). Calculation of Interbull weighting factors for the Finnish test day model. Interbull Bulletin no. 26: 78-79.	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	GENO SA, Storhamargata 44, N-2317 Hamar, Norway.
Phone: +47 95020600
Fax:     +47 62520610
E-mail: post@geno.no
Web site: www.geno.no	
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).

TR  TR-NAME  N-OBS      MEAN        SD          MINIMUM       MAXIMUM
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  CM1      3992878 -0.93402E-06   1.0000     -0.43100       6.4360    
 2  CM2      3917946  0.11070E-03  0.99998     -0.25800       8.4900    
 3  CM3      3543076 -0.59276E-05   1.0000     -0.31900       6.7080    
 4  CM4      2932395 -0.11808E-04   1.0000     -0.43100       5.1000    
 5  CM5      2587759 -0.15479E-04   1.0000     -0.51900       3.5590    
 6  CM6      1941337  0.77754E-04  0.99994     -0.50100       4.0130    
 7  CM7      1655285 -0.16755E-04  0.99997     -0.57900       3.1040    

Covariance Matrix for Random Effect Number   1   Herd by Year
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           1           2           3           4           5           6           7
  1     0.7376E-02
  2     0.1429E-02  0.1149E-02
  3     0.1859E-02  0.1118E-02  0.2557E-02
  4     0.4969E-02  0.1239E-02  0.1781E-02  0.6050E-02
  5     0.3490E-02  0.2252E-02  0.3802E-02  0.4354E-02  0.8827E-02
  6     0.5214E-02  0.1406E-02  0.2122E-02  0.5923E-02  0.4510E-02  0.7953E-02
  7     0.3738E-02  0.2420E-02  0.4085E-02  0.4275E-02  0.8498E-02  0.5281E-02  0.1000E-01
 
Covariance Matrix for Random Effect Number   8   Additive Genetic
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           1           2           3           4           5           6           7
  1     0.3344E-02
  2     0.6518E-03  0.4067E-03
  3     0.8212E-03  0.5883E-03  0.1049E-02
  4     0.2233E-02  0.5767E-03  0.8607E-03  0.2279E-02
  5     0.1576E-02  0.1087E-02  0.1835E-02  0.1710E-02  0.3836E-02
  6     0.2257E-02  0.5845E-03  0.8018E-03  0.2362E-02  0.1774E-02  0.2863E-02
  7     0.1708E-02  0.9617E-03  0.1616E-02  0.1555E-02  0.3539E-02  0.1904E-02  0.3717E-02
  
 Residual Co-Variance Matrix
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           1           2           3           4           5           6           7
  1     0.100764    
  2     0.1957E-02  0.4758E-01
  3    -0.4704E-04  0.2790E-02  0.6744E-01
  4     0.7483E-02  0.3052E-02  0.4280E-02  0.103831    
  5     0.2540E-02  0.3188E-02  0.6206E-02  0.2952E-02  0.136139    
  6     0.5598E-02  0.2660E-02  0.3338E-02  0.9780E-02  0.1005E-01  0.122090    
  7     0.1549E-02  0.2785E-02  0.4513E-02  0.4325E-02  0.1339E-01  0.2491E-02  0.150482    
  
 Residual Correlation Matrix
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           1           2           3           4           5           6           7
  1       1.0000
  2       0.0283      1.0000
  3      -0.0006      0.0493      1.0000
  4       0.0732      0.0434      0.0511      1.0000
  5       0.0217      0.0396      0.0648      0.0248      1.0000
  6       0.0505      0.0349      0.0368      0.0869      0.0780      1.0000
  7       0.0126      0.0329      0.0448      0.0346      0.0936      0.0184     1.0000

Heritabilities on diagonal. Genetic correlations below diagonal.
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	
1	3,21 %							
2	0,559	0,85 %						
3	0,438	0,901	1,53 %					
4	0,809	0,599	0,557	2,15 %				
5	0,440	0,870	0,915	0,578	2,74 %			
6	0,730	0,542	0,463	0,925	0,536	2,29 %		
7	0,484	0,782	0,819	0,534	0,937	0,584	2,41 %	

Form GE	Appendix GE

Parameters used in genetic evaluation

Country (or countries):	Norway		
Main trait group:	Health		
Breed (repeat as necessary):	Norwegian Red  (NRF).		

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
Somatic cell score	1st to 5th parity	Xd	.2158	0.151538	((eval-a) /b*(-12) + 100
a,b changes at every evaluation	
	Repeatability=.3425					
Clinical mastitis	Index [1 1 1 0 0 0 0]		.0351303	.0009913	((eval-a)/b)*(-12) + 100
a,b changes at every evaluation	
Clin. mastitis 1	1st parity, -15 to 30 d		.029999	.0033445		
	Herd by year ratio= .066170					
Clin. mastitis 2	1st parity, 31 to 120 d		.008277	.0004068		
	Herd by year ratio= .023380					
Clin. mastitis 3	1st parity, 121 to 305 d		.014771	.0010494		
	Herd by year ratio= .035994					
Clin. mastitis 4	2nd parity, -15 to 30 d		.020325	.0022797		
	Herd by year ratio= .053947					
Clin. mastitis 5	2nd parity, 31 to 305 d		.025784	.0038368		
	Herd by year ratio= .059321					
Clin. mastitis 6	3rd parity, -15 to 30 d		.021543	.0028632		
	Herd by year ratio= .059842					
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.
d	SCC is submitted for both SCC and mastitis.

Form GE	Appendix SM

Parameters for national genetic evaluations for udder health traits as provided to Interbull

Country (or countries):	Norway	
Main trait group:	Health	
Breed(s):	Norwegian Red (NRF)	

Trait	h2a	genetic
variancea	official proof
standardisation formulab	
Milk Somatic Cell: scc
	0.2158	0.151537908	((eval-a) /b * (-12) + 100
a,b changes at every evaluation	
Clinical Mastitis: scc
	0.2158	0.151537908	((eval-a) /b * (-12) + 100
a,b changes at every evaluation	
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.