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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

May - June 2021

This executive summary reports the latest information about the Interbull Centre and important decisions taken during the Interbull Business Meeting of 29 April 2021 and by the Steering Committee in their meetings on 5 May and 3 June 2021.

2021 Interbull-ICAR Meeting

The 2021 Interbull-ICAR meeting was held as a virtual meeting from 26-30 April 2021. Power point presentations of the Open Meetings are available on the Interbull website: https://interbull.org/ib/programme_virtual_2021. Papers will be published in the Interbull Bulleting from September 2021. Public materials for the Business Meeting are available on: https://interbull.org/ib/business_meeting_2021.

Membership Interbull SC (Steering Committee/Sub-committee)

Gordon Doak and Enrico Santus ended their (respectively 4 and 25 year) Interbull SC membership. Enrico received the “ICAR Outstanding Contribution Award 2021” as an appreciation for his services to Interbull.

During the Interbull Business Meeting on 29 April 2021, the following 5 candidates were proposed as Interbull Steering committee members, and subsequently endorsed by the ICAR Board during its meeting on 25 May 2021. Sitting members: Matthew Shaffer, Brian Van Doormaal and Marija Klopčič. New Members: Ezequiel Nicolazzi and Daniele Vicario.

Matthew and Brian are the sitting Chair and Vice-Chair of the Interbull Steering Committee and have a further two years in their terms as Chair and Vice-Chair, and will continue these roles as SC representatives.

Whereas the term of Interbull SC members is usually 4 years, the Interbull SC, with approval of the ICAR Chair, decided in 2020 on the below variation in term length for implementation in the 2021 Business Meeting in order to spread the end of the fixed terms more evenly. This results in the following membership and term:

It was announced at the Business Meeting of 29 April 2021 as well, that:

• Gert Pedersen Aamand stepped down as the Chair of the Interbull Technical Committee.
• Gerben de Jong was appointed by the Interbull Steering Committee at its meeting on 14 April 2021 as Chair of the Interbull Technical Committee.

2021 Interbull Service Fees

Invoices for the delivery of all services in 2021 were issued in May 2021, with a provision for a supplementary invoice in November 2021 (for services to members that are not known yet). The calculation of the fees is based on the methodology as approved by the Interbull Steering Committee (as described in Chapter 10 of the Interbull Code of Practice).

For the first time since 2013, the fee level was increased: by 2% in comparison to 2020 (following a decision by the Steering Committee in 2020).

The fees are based on the same number of milk-recorded cows as were used to calculate your service fee last year (following a proposal at the Interbull Business Meeting of 29 April 2021, and subsequent approval by the Steering Committee on 5 May 2021).

GenoEx-PSE

To enhance the Parentage Analysis supporting services on the International Genotype Exchange Platform (GenoEx.org), a few changes will be introduced to GenoEx-PSE during 2021:

Gender: Currently, organisations participating in GenoEx-PSE are required to exchange SNP data on both males and females. As this prohibits the participation of several organisations, after the new release, organisations will be given the option to exchange SNP data on males, females or both sexes.

Breed: To fall in line with the GenoEx-PSE Code of Practice, organisations will be limited to downloading SNP data for those breeds for which they have declared to carry out parentage verification activities in their region (as listed on the ICAR website: https://tinyurl.com/ubprnc46).

Parentage Discovery: In anticipation of ICAR’s DNA Data Interpretation Centre accreditation for Parentage Discovery, organisations participating in GenoEx-PSE will be able to upload the specified SNP data for Parentage Discovery (PD; 354 SNP) in addition to those required for Verification (PV; 200 SNPs). Detailed information on these changes will be communicated to current and potential future participants in due course.

SNPMace

Great progress has been made with the SNPMace feasibility study. The upcoming plans for the Pilot Run were presented during the Interbull Open Meeting on 26 April 2021. Furthermore, a SNPMace webinar, attended by 84 participants was organised on 26 May 2021 to discuss technical scenarios for the first SNPMace Pilot Run. During the webinar, organisations interested in joining the SNPMace Pilot Run raised both technical and business-related questions.

As the business-related issues are crucial in determining the organisations’ participation in (and the Interbull Centre’s execution of) the SNPMace Pilot Run, the Interbull Steering Committee has decided to extend the deadline for the SNPMace Pilot Run. This will allow time to develop a process for consulting Interbull Service Users on such issues. The Interbull community will be updated with the outcomes and recommendations. The new deadline for data submission will be communicated as soon as possible. A 2-months’ notice period will be assured between communications and submission deadline.

2022 ICAR-Interbull Meeting

The 2022 ICAR-Interbull Meeting will be held in the vibrant and friendly city of Montréal, in the province of Québec, Canada, from 30 May until 3 June 2022. The Interbull Open Meetings are foreseen for Monday and Tuesday, 30 and 31 May 2022. More info will become available on www.icar2022.ca.