GUELPH, – Effective with the April 2014 genetic evaluation release, Canadian genomic evaluations for the Brown Swiss breed have realized a major boost in accuracy gains. Following the December 2013 decision of the CDN Board of Directors for Canada to join the Intergenomics initiative and services offered by Interbull, genotypes for nearly 3,800 progeny proven sires in Europe have been added to the reference population for estimating Brown Swiss genomic evaluations in Canada. Canada’s participation in Intergenomics has provided access to genotypes from proven sires in countries with very large Brown Swiss populations including Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria although the United States, France and Slovenia are also part of this international genomics collaboration. The Canadian Brown Swiss and Braunvieh Association is the official organization signatory of the Intergenomics Letter of Agreement, representing the interests of Canadian breeders of Brown Swiss cattle.
In December 2013, Canadian Brown Swiss genomic evaluations were estimated by CDN using a group of 1,562 reference sires, which included 202 progeny proven sires with an official LPI in Canada and 1,360 sires with a MACE LPI. With the new genotypes received by joining Intergenomics, the reference population increased to 5,356 proven sires… an increase of 3.4 fold! Such a significant increase in the number of reference sires results in a major boost in terms of the gains in accuracy realized with genomics compared to using only Parent Averages for young bulls and heifers. The net impact of participation in Intergenomics is a gain in accuracy that is at least 10 percentage points of Reliability higher for LPI and each of its three components. For genotyped young sires the average LPI Reliability is now 54%, which is 22 percentage points higher than the average Reliability based on Parent Average alone, at 32%. Similar important benefits associated with access to genotypes via the Intergenomics collaboration are realized for all production traits, a group of 20 type traits analyzed by Interbull as well as Somatic Cell Score, Milking Speed, Herd Life, Daughter Fertility and Calving Ability. In addition to the accuracy gains realized for young bulls and heifers, the larger reference population also had a positive impact on the accuracy of genomic evaluations for progeny proven sires with gains as high as 5 to 7 percentage points of Reliability for the Durability and Health & Fertility components of LPI as well as for individual traits including Milking Speed, Herd Life and Daughter Fertility. Genomic selection in the Canadian Brown Swiss population can now be achieved with increased confidence!
Canadian Dairy Network (CDN) is the national genetic evaluation centre for dairy cattle and provides services to Canadian dairy producers and member organizations including breed associations, DHI agencies, A.I. organizations and Dairy Farmers of Canada. It also serves as the hub of the national Data Exchange System by which all dairy cattle improvement industry organizations share authorized data collected from dairy herds across the country.
For more information, please contact:
Brian Van Doormaal General Manager Canadian Dairy Network
Jessie Weir
Secretary Manager
Canadian Brown Swiss and Braunvieh Association