SERVICE CONTRACT

Between:

INTERBULL CUSTOMER: <ORGANIZATION 1>, at <Address>, <Country>
NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION UNIT: <ORGANIZATION 2>, at <Address>, <Country>
ICAR MEMBER ORGANIZATION: <ORGANIZATION 3>, at <Address>, <Country>
INTERBULL CENTRE: Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), at PO Box 7023, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.

Article 1

The purpose of this contract is to establish the terms for service provision of international genetic and genomic evaluations within the ICAR/Interbull framework.

Article 2

ICAR is the International Committee for Animal Recording and Interbull is the permanent subcommittee of ICAR responsible for international standards in genetic evaluations.

The INTERBULL CUSTOMER is the legal representative of the dairy cattle population(s) listed on Appendix I having the legal authority to decide about usage of performance, pedigree and genomic data of all sorts on behalf of the breeders.

The NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION UNIT is the technical body providing both data and expertise to the Interbull evaluations on behalf of the INTERBULL CUSTOMER.

The ICAR MEMBER is the organization that holds the status of full member at the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR) that represents the INTERBULL CUSTOMER before ICAR.

The INTERBULL CENTRE is the operational unit of Interbull currently providing routine computations of international genetic evaluations of dairy bulls, under the responsibility of the ICAR Sub-Committee Interbull and its Steering Committee. The INTERBULL CENTRE is hosted by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden, and operates according to a contract between ICAR and SLU under Swedish law.

Article 3

This service contract is for a continuous period, commencing at the date the contract is signed by all parties. Upon signing this Service Agreement, it will take immediate effect and replace any and all existing service agreements signed between the parties regarding Interbull services. In addition, if this current service agreement is not signed prior to December 31, 2013, then the INTERBULL CENTRE shall consider all existing Service Agreements signed between the parties to have been terminated by the other party or parties.

Article 4

As part of the ICAR Sub-Committee Interbull activities, services described herein will be overseen by the Interbull Steering Committee.

Article 5

Scientific and technical direction for the services will be overseen by the Interbull Technical Committee, which will provide technical recommendations to the Interbull Steering Committee.

Article 6

In order to accomplish the purpose expressed in Article 1, the INTERBULL CUSTOMER agrees to:

• delegate to the NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION UNIT the authority of exchanging with the INTERBULL CENTRE the data and the technical information necessary to include the populations in the service categories listed in the Appendix I into Interbull evaluations, according to the data exchange specifications of the Interbull Code of Practice,
• accept the evaluation methods and procedures described in the Interbull Code of Practice,
• follow the Interbull publication rules established in the Interbull Code of Practice, and
• pay the respective service fees to the INTERBULL CENTRE as established on the Interbull Code of Practice.

Article 7

In order to accomplish the purpose expressed in Article 1, the NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION UNIT agrees to:

• supply, on behalf of the INTERBULL CUSTOMER, pedigrees, national evaluation data and additional information required for the herein contracted services to the INTERBULL CENTRE, according to the procedures described in the Interbull Code of Practice,
• accept the evaluation methods and procedures described in the Interbull Code of Practice,
• follow the Interbull publication rules established in the Interbull Code of Practice, and
• provide technical expertise to monitor data handling, methods used and results generated within the realm of this contract.

Article 8

The ICAR MEMBER recognizes the service provision described herein as an official ICAR activity.

Article 9

The INTERBULL CENTRE agrees to provide the following services:

• maintain an international database of pedigrees, national and international evaluations and additional relevant information for the dairy breeds participating in the Interbull evaluations,
• carry out international genetic and genomic evaluations according to the Interbull Code of Practice,
• provide user support to the INTERBULL CUSTOMER and the NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION UNIT related to the activities described herein, and
• deliver to the NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION UNIT the results of the service categories listed in Appendix I according to the service calendar defined by the Interbull Steering Committee.

Article 10

Any party has the right to terminate this agreement with a 6 months’ notice to the other parties.

The INTERBULL CENTRE shall have the right to terminate the Agreement or withhold performance of services pursuant to this Agreement in the event that the INTERBULL CUSTOMER is delinquent in payment by more than thirty (30) days or in the event of a clear infringement the Interbull Code of Practice by any of the other parties, given that the Interbull Steering Committee is officially communicated.

Article 11

Access to the data provided by the NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION UNIT will be granted exclusively to INTERBULL CENTRE staff with the objective of accomplishing the objective from the present agreement, expressed on Article 1. Unless explicitly authorized by the INTERBULL CUSTOMER, the INTERBULL CENTRE is not allowed to provide any individual or organization access to the data to which this agreement refers to. Under no circumstances will results on individual animals, herds or genotypes be made available for use by any of the contractors or external organizations for any purposes without advance written authority from the organisation providing the data in the first instance.

When investigations demanded by the service users are carried out, research results obtained by the INTERBULL CENTRE or any other research collaborator using data supplied by the INTERBULL CUSTOMERS may be published only after approval has been granted by the involved organizations.

Whenever the INTERBULL CENTRE receives the authorization to supply data to an external research partner, a research agreement must be formalized to prevent inappropriate use of the data received under the realm of the present contract.

In case of termination of the Agreement, the data already provided to the INTERBULL CENTRE remain in the Interbull database and may be used for the international genomic evaluations. Article 11 remains valid even if this contract is terminated.

Article 12

Changes in the service portfolio demanded by the INTERBULL CUSTOMER to the INTERBULL CENTRE should be formalized by amendment to this contract with the respective update of Appendix I.

Article 13

Any dispute under this contract which the parties cannot resolve by negotiations shall be resolved by arbitration according to Swedish Arbitration Act (SFS 1999:116). The terms of this contract shall be interpreted under Swedish Law.

Signed in 4 originals

Appendix I

Population(s) and service categories covered by this service contract. Service category-country-breed combinations marked with an ‘X’ participate in the respective services and will be included in the service fee calculation according to the Interbull Code of Practice.

Signed in 4 originals