Status as of: 2013-08-30

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	CROATIA	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	FUNCTIONAL TRAITS	
Breed(s)	SIM	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	Calving ease scoring (1-no problem, 2-slight problem, 3-cow needed assistance, 4-verinary assistance)	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Identification recording 	
Time period for data inclusion	Data since January 1995	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Calving ease in the 1st and later parities (2nd to 10th ) were treated as two traits using a bivariate model	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Region and breeder has to be recorded	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	No	
Sire categories	AI	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	No	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	BT – BLUP – AM, direct and maternal, first and later calvings	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	F: sex-age-parity, calving season, region-year
R:herd-year, direct and maternal genetic, and permanent environment (only for 2nd + parity)	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	No	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	see PAGE 3 for heritability/genetic variance estimates	
System validation	Means and SDs for all variables calculated; means and SDs of BV for bulls	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	see PAGE 3 for heritability/genetic variance estimates	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Mean of cows born in 2003.

2014	
Calculation of reliability	Calculated from additive genetic variance and prediction error variance (PEV, Mrode, 1996)	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Reliability >=50% (M) and >=10% (F)	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	4	
Use in total merit index4	SIM: Calving ease (paternal) 3.0 %, calving ease (maternal) 3.0 %	
Anticipated changes in the near future	Change of genetic base	
Key reference on methodology applied	Špehar M., Ivkić Z., Bulić V., Gorjanc G. (2012). Genetic evaluation for calving ease in Croatian Simmental breed. 46. Croatian and 6. International Agricultural Symposium. Croatia, Opatija. 	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	Croatian Agricultural Agency, Department for genetic evaluation, Ilica 101, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, Phone: +385-1-3903-176, Fax: +385-1-3903-192, mspehar@hpa.hr 	
1) Either: Production (e.g. milk, fat, protein), Conformation, Health (e.g. mastitis resistance, milk somatic cell, resistance to diseases other than mastitis), Longevity, Calving (e.g. stillbirth, calving ease), Female fertility (e.g. non-return rate, interval between reproductive events, number of AI’s, heat strength), Workability (e.g. milking speed, temperament), Beef production, Efficiency (e.g. body weight, energy balance, body conditioning score), or Other traits.
2) Indicate frequencies per category if the trait is categorical and specify transformation of data if practiced.
3) Use abbreviations for most common effects (see document with list of abbreviations at http://www-interbull.slu.se/service_documentation/General/list_of_abbreviations.rtf) and indicate random (R) or fixed (F).
4) Please give economic weights and indicate how they are expressed (preferably in genetic standard deviation units).

.

 
Form GE	Appendix CA

Parameters for national genetic evaluations for calving traits as provided to Interbull

Country (or countries):	CROATIA	
Main trait group:	Functional traits: Calving ease	
Breed(s):	SIM	

Trait	h2	genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formulaa	
Direct calving ease:	0.07	0.0084		
Maternal calving ease:	0.08	0.0100		
a	Expressed as follows:
StandEval=((eval-a)/b)*c+d where a=mean of the base adjustment, b=standard deviation of the base, c=standard deviation of expression (include sign if scale is reversed), and d=base of expression.

Status as of: 2013-08-30

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	CROATIA	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	FUNCTIONAL TRAITS	
Breed(s)	SIM	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	Stillbirth rate (1-live-born, 2-dead within 24 h)	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Identification recording 	
Time period for data inclusion	Data since January 1995	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Stillbirth rate in the 1st and later parities (2nd to 10th ) were treated as two traits using a bivariate model	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Region and breeder has to be recorded	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	No	
Sire categories	AI	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	No	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	BT - BLUP – AM, direct and maternal, first and later calvings	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	F: sex-age-parity, calving season, region-year
R:herd-year, direct and maternal genetic, and permanent environment (only for 2nd + parity)	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	No	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	see PAGE 3 for heritability/genetic variance estimates	
System validation	Means and SDs for all variables calculated; means and SDs of BV for bulls	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	see PAGE 3 for heritability/genetic variance estimates	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Mean of cows born in 2003.

2014	
Calculation of reliability	Calculated from additive genetic variance and prediction error variance (PEV, Mrode, 1996)	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Reliability >=50% (M) and >=10% (F)	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	4	
Use in total merit index4	Stillbirth (direct) 2.0 %, stillbirth (maternal) 2.0 %	
Anticipated changes in the near future	Change of genetic base	
Key reference on methodology applied	The same methodology as for calving ease: (Špehar M., Ivkić Z., Bulić V., Gorjanc G. (2012). Genetic evaluation for calving ease in Croatian Simmental breed. 46. Croatian and 6. International Agricultural Symposium. Croatia, Opatija). 	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	Croatian Agricultural Agency, Department for genetic evaluation, Ilica 101, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, Phone: +385-1-3903-176, Fax: +385-1-3903-192, mspehar@hpa.hr 	
1) Either: Production (e.g. milk, fat, protein), Conformation, Health (e.g. mastitis resistance, milk somatic cell, resistance to diseases other than mastitis), Longevity, Calving (e.g. stillbirth, calving ease), Female fertility (e.g. non-return rate, interval between reproductive events, number of AI’s, heat strength), Workability (e.g. milking speed, temperament), Beef production, Efficiency (e.g. body weight, energy balance, body conditioning score), or Other traits.
2) Indicate frequencies per category if the trait is categorical and specify transformation of data if practiced.
3) Use abbreviations for most common effects (see document with list of abbreviations at http://www-interbull.slu.se/service_documentation/General/list_of_abbreviations.rtf) and indicate random (R) or fixed (F).
4) Please give economic weights and indicate how they are expressed (preferably in genetic standard deviation units).

.

 
Form GE	Appendix CA

Parameters for national genetic evaluations for calving traits as provided to Interbull

Country (or countries):	CROATIA	
Main trait group:	Functional Traits: Stillbirth	
Breed(s):	SIM	

Trait	h2	genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formulaa	
Direct stillbirth:	0.04	0.0014		
Maternal stillbirth:	0.05	0.0016		
a	Expressed as follows:
StandEval=((eval-a)/b)*c+d where a=mean of the base adjustment, b=standard deviation of the base, c=standard deviation of expression (include sign if scale is reversed), and d=base of expression.