INTERBULL EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

NO. 2023-2: APRIL-JUNE 2023

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This executive summary reports the latest information about the Interbull Centre, the 2023 ICAR meeting in Toledo and important decisions taken by the Interbull Steering Committee (SC) and Interbull Technical Committee (ITC) in their meetings of 12 April and 15 June (SC) and 9 May 2023 (ITC).

Interbull Bulletin Issue 58 available

Three key current research topics were addressed during the 2023 Interbull Technical Workshop near Rome on 14 and 15 February 2023: “New Traits” (Expansion of Interbull Services portfolio), “Future MACE” and “Validation” (New validation in the genomic era). The proceedings of the 2023 Technical Workshop have been published in Interbull Bulletin Issue 58; https://journal.interbull.org.

New ITC Members

A call for Expressions of Interest (EoI) for ITC membership was released in April 2023. The Interbull Steering Committee noted that the standard of the EoI’s was high. We would like to thank all the applicants for their interest and applications. After careful consideration, the SC appointed Andres Legarra (CDCB, USA) and Jan-Thijs van Kaam (ANAFIBJ, Italy) to the ITC for a 4-year term. They will join the ITC during the next ITC meeting, in Lyon, France. We welcome Andres and Jan-Thijs and would like to thank their employers for the continued support to Interbull.

2023 ICAR Annual Meeting

The 2023 ICAR meeting took place from 21-26 May 2023 in Toledo, Spain. During the ICAR 2023 Annual Meeting, the Interbull Centre carried out the following activities:

1. Participation in the following meetings:

1. ICAR Interbeef Working Group and Technical Committee.
2. ICAR Animal Identification Sub-Committee.
3. ICAR DNA Working Group.

2. Organisation of an Interbeef Workshop and Meeting on International Genomic Evaluations for Beef:

1. The Interbeef WG is discussing different options for implementing its International Genomic Evaluation considering the pros and cons of several scenarios with different options as for the service provider. The Workshop was very helpful in receiving feedback from countries’ representatives about the future genomic Interbeef services. Although the Workshop was in-person, a follow-up via e-mail has been extended to all Interbeef WG members.
2. The Meeting explored research project opportunities to develop a Multi-breed, Multi-Trait International Genomic Evaluations, for an additional range of traits.

3. An open session was organised on Tuesday 23 May to present the value and benefits of the service provided by the Interbull Centre for current and potentially new ones. The presentation covered Interbull Centre services related to Evaluations (MACE, GMACE, InterGenomics and Interbeef), Validation (TMACE, Conventional Breeding Values, GEBV-test, EURC Validation), Exchange (GenoEx-GDE, GenoEx-PSE, Genetic Traits) and Collaboration (PREPdb, Interbull Bulletin, International Guidelines and Meetings Workshops and Webinars).

4. The European Regional Focal Point (ERFP) for Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) is the regional platform to support the in situ and ex situ conservation and sustainable use of animal genetic resources and to facilitate the implementation of FAO’s Global Plan of Action for AnGR. The ERFP organised a meeting in conjunction with the 2023 ICAR meeting. During the ERFP open session “What is happening in the field of AnGR in Europe", the Interbull Centre / EURC Zootechnics Director, Toine Roozen, presented opportunities for collaboration with the newly established EURC for Endangered Animal Breeds.

2023 Interbull Annual Meeting

The 2023 Interbull Annual Meeting (26 to 28 August 2023) will be held in conjunction with 74th EAAP annual meeting in Lyon, France. Record numbers of both Interbull Meeting registrations and Open Meeting abstracts have already been received. The Interbull website (https://interbull.org/ib/2023_eaap_interbull) will provide detailed information on the Interbull Annual Meeting program as and when it becomes available, with the scientific programme expected to be available by 15 July 2023. Please visit https://eaap2023.org for the general program, registration and accommodation.

Interbull Service Update

The 2024 Interbull Service calendar is available on https://interbull.org/ib/servicecalendar.

The next Truncated MACE (TMACE) evaluation is scheduled for October 2023, with a confirmed participation from USA and Canada. Interested NGECs are invited to inform the Interbull Centre no later than 6 August 2023 of their intention to take part to the service.

Interbeef Service Update

The following changes to the Interbeef calendar were approved by the Interbeef WG and will take effect from 1 January 2024: Removal of the “Optional Test evaluation” in October, and the shortening to 3 days for submitting comments on pre-release results in routine evaluations. The Interbeef calendar is available on https://wiki.interbull.org/public/Interbeef_calendar?action=print&rev=55.

Ireland and Great Britain participated with Charolais, Limousin and Simmental in the first official test evaluation for Carcass trait (including carcass weight, carcass conformation and carcass fat) in April 2023.

PREP Database Developments

During its latest update, the PREP database was equipped with the following new features: – Possibility to access the available electronic forms and view their content also for not registered users; – A query functionality, per electronic form, allowing all users (registered and not) to get an easy and convenient overview of the information available; and – Possibility to download the result of the query in different formats.

IDEA Webinars

During the first IDEA webinar of 2023 46 participants learned about the IDEA pedigree module and all its functionalities. The webinar, which was held on 27 April 2023, has been recorded and the video is available within the IDEA/Help tab for the convenience of all current and future IDEA users.

The next IDEA webinar, scheduled for 14:30 CET on 26 July 2023, will focus on the “AnimInfo” module and will cover the way IDEA users can provide additional information (from Holstein red factor to genotyped animals and genetic disease information) to a given pedigree record. Information on how to register will be distributed to all IDEA users in due time.

Two additional IDEA webinars have been scheduled for 2023: On 27 September 2023, we will address the dairy proofs module (targeting specifically dairy users), while on 26 October 2023 the focus is on the beef performance module (targeting specifically beef users). Both webinars will be start at 14:30 CET. All IDEA webinars will be recorded and made available to IDEA users.