INTERSTALLION

Steven Janssens (secretary) Jan Philipsson (chairmen)

INTERSTALLION• Working group of the EAAP established in 1998

Improve accessibility, understanding and comparability of foreign breeding information across countries.

• Is this a problem….?

Sport horse breeding = international

• >60 studbooks/ org.WBFSH 61 members from 29 countries

• >130,000 foals/year

• concentrated in Europe (7 countries 50% foals)Germany 30,000 Belgium 4,000

Ireland 4,000France 15,000 Sweden 3,500The Netherlands 12,000 Denmark 2,500

% matings by foreign stallions

country perc. origin

Netherlands 31% Germany, France

France 6% Germany

Denmark 74% Germany, The Netherlands

Sweden 62% Germany, The Netherlands

How to use foreign information?

• How should we compare test results?

• How should we compare breeding values?

Same stallion: different values?

G. Ramiro ZNetherlands 122 (97%)France +12 (88%)Belgium 98.5 (95%)Ireland 98 (10%)

Correct interpretation requires information on:

• How are breeding objectives defined?

• How are horses tested?

• How are breeding values calculated?

INTERSTALLION initial research initiatives:

• Survey breeding objectives

• Survey on testing systems and breeding value estimation

Survey breeding objectives…

Performance testing

competitioncompetition

fieldfield

stationstation

Three types of performance tests

test

cap

acity

accuracy

Competition tests

• many observations • large variation in traits

(earnings, placings, scores, highest level)

• problems with pre-selection• large environmental variation • low heritabilities (h2 = 0.10 - 0.20)

• can only be measured late in life (5-12 years)

MANY OBSERVATIONS BUT LOW VALUE

Field performance tests

• early age (3 - 4 years of age)

• uniform conditions• reasonable costs • reasonable heritabilities (h2 = 0.20 - 0.30)

• reasonable predictive value for later sport performance (rg > 0.50)

REASONABLE GOOD INFORMATION AT REASONABLE COSTS

Station performance tests

• early age (3 - 4 years of age)

• long testing period (up to 100 days)

• very uniform conditions • high heritabilities (h2 = 0.20 - 0.60)

• high predictive value for later sport performance (rg > 0.80)

• high costs

VERY GOOD INFORMATION AT HIGH COSTS

How to improve transparency and comparability?

Dairy cattle: Interbull

1. exchange information on national genetic evaluations

2. improvement and harmonisation of methods

3. international genetic evaluation using information from multiple countries

INTERSTALLION further research initiatives:

• Information exchange

• harmonisation

• Is across country evaluation possible?

1. Exchange information

• http://www.interstallion.org

• standardised information on:- breeding population- breeding objective- testing methods- genetic evaluation systems

2. Harmonise

3. Is across country evaluation possible?

• Genetic connectedness• Genetic correlations

start of pilot projects

Pilot projects (I & II)

• Investigate the genetic connectedness between countries/associations

• Estimate genetic correlations between performances in different countries

• 2 Phd studiesEmma Thorén Hellsten (SLU)Catherine Ruhlmann (INRA)extended committee (EAAP, ICAR, WBFSH)

• Support by SLU, INRA , WBFSH

Id numbers !!

Ramiro, G. Ramiro ZGermany, Holstein ramiro 210389565Belgium, sBs ramiro z X-188 Belgium, BWP ramiro z 1317Netherlands, KWPN g.ramiro z 294France ramiro 59041861

Pilot project I

• Test results of horses

• Station or field test• Young horses• DWB

KWPNSWBHANHOL

Results phase 1….

Results gen. correlation

• Only between DWB and SWB

• Very high gen. Correlations between similar traits dressage, jumping

Pilot project II

• Competition data(jumping)

• Breeding valuestallions

• DWBKWPNSWBHANHOLISHBWP, sBsCSF

Connectedness

  Bel. Den. Fra. Ire. Swe.

Bel.  0.74 (0.22) 0.88 (0.06)   0.86 (0.08)

Den.    0.70 (0.16)   0.86 (0.07)

Fra.    0.73 (0.16) 0.88 (0.05)

Ire.        0.91 (0.14)

Swe.        

Genetic correlations

The historic role of INTERSTALLION

• IS research has pointed out variation in breeding programmes for sport horsesmade this info available + proposed some guidelines for improvement

• IS research indicates that across country evaluation is technically possibleare (all) studbooks willing to continue

.. role in the future...

• Return to status of working group

• Focuss on research on emerging traits (defects, longevity, temperament, ..)

• Information dissemination (website)

acknowledgements

• Interstallion members• Swedish Agricultural University• KULeuven with support from Vlaams Fokkerij

Centrum and Vlaams Varkens stamboek