Bull Controlling Country list (File 734)

Purpose

Defining which country controls a given AI bull that is used in multiple countries has always been a challenge for Interbull service users, given that country of registration only implies the origin of the animal, not where it actually is located. For progeny tested bulls included in MACE, the country with the larger number of daughters included in the national genetic evaluation usually is a reliable indicator of the controlling country, but this additional information is not available for the young genomically evaluated bulls that are included in GMACE.
Therefore, the Interbull SC has decided to request additional information from the service users regarding which bulls are controlled by companies/stud within the area of influence of each country participating in Interbull international comparisons (MACE & GMACE). This information will have strategic use for interpreting all types of results distributed by Interbull and it will play an important role on the GMACE publication policy.

Implementation

1. All service users are encouraged to send the bull controlling information to the Interbull Centre using the file 734 format described herein.

   1. Each national genetic evaluation centre (NGEC) should include in the file 734 all bulls that are controlled by an AI company, bull stud or individual owner within its area of coverage, usually the country it represents.

   2. Both progeny tested and young bulls (all bulls included in MACE and GMACE) should be included in file 734.

   3. File 734 should be uploaded to the Interbull Centre ftp site following the usual procedures for data exchange.
2. The files 734 received will be merged and made available to all service users
   1. The Interbull Centre will try to resolve all potential conflicts (e.g. same bull declared by different controllers) before distribution by contacting the involved NGECs.

April 2014 run

1. Those NGECs willing to provide bull controlling information as input to the 2014 GMACE run must provide the file 734 to the Interbull Centre until Feb 28, 2014.

2. For bulls included in the supplied controlling country list, the GMACE publication status declared by the controlling country will take preference regardless of publication status in other countries.

3. The previously distributed ”ownership” list will be renamed as ”publication status" list and will contain a list of bulls which comply with the following criteria for the controlling country:

   1. Status of bull = 10 (AI bull)
   2. Publication status = Y (bull meets the national standards for official publication)
4. For any bull not included in any user-supplied controlling country file, the bull will be considered publishable in routine/implementation runs if at least one GEBV record included in GMACE, for any population and any trait, has
   1. Status of bull = 10 (AI bull)
   2. Publication status = Y (bull meets the national standards for official publication)

Future use of file 734

During the 2014 ICAR/Interbull Conference in Berlin, from May 20-21, 2014, the Interbull Centre will present in more detail how the bull controlling country information will be incorporated into the normal data flow. Likewise, the SC will establish in more details how this control information will be used by Interbull and service users.

File 734 format

This format is designed for uploading information about bull controlling country and its GMACE publication status. Note that the file has semi-colon field separators (exactly four) and the column positions allow for these separators.

Column Field description                                   Format        Notes
1      Record type                                         Character  3  734
5      Breed of evaluation                                 Character  3  Notes 1 and 3.
9      Controlling country (Population code)               Character  3  Notes 2 and 3.
13     International animal ID                             Character 19  Note 4.
33     GMACE publication status                            Character  1  Note 5.
35     NAAB stud number                                    Character 10  Note 6.

Notes:

1. Breed of evaluation (upper case) must be BSW, GUE, JER, HOL, RDC or SIM.

2. The population code must be an upper case population code assigned by the Interbull Centre. It is generally the same as the country code of the organization submitting the data except in the cases of multi-country evaluations (eg. "DEA" and "DFS") or multiple populations within a country participating in the same international evaluation (eg. "CHE"/"CHR", "FRA"/"FRR"/"FRM").

3. The breed-population combination must be among the combinations for which your organization is authorized to submit bull evaluations for MACE for dairy production traits.

4. The 19-character international animal ID must be valid according to the rules specified for pedigree files (breed*3, country*3, sex*1, id*12). (The animal must exist in the Interbull pedigree database and a pedigree record must have been uploaded.)

5. The allowed "GMACE publication status codes" are: Y=yes, the controlling country allows the GMACE results for that bull to be distributed, N=no, the controlling country DOES NOT allow the GMACE results for that bull to be distributed or P=progeny tested bull (i.e. not included in GMACE for any trait). It is assumed here that GMACE results for all available traits have the same publication status, either "Y" for all traits or "N" for all traits.

6. The NAAB stud number of the bull controller should be reported (if available). The purpose is to use it as an additional criteria to resolve the conflicts, i.e. the information provided by the bull controller has precedence over other sources.

Sample records:

734;HOL;ITA;HOLITAM000123456789;Y;EXAMPLE
734;HOL;ITA;HOLITAM000987654321;N;EXAMPLE
734;HOL;ITA;HOLITAM000987654322;N;EXAMPLE
734;HOL;ITA;HOLAUTM012345678900;Y;EXAMPLE
734;HOL;ITA;HOLITAM000987654323;P;EXAMPLE