1 / 37

INTERSTALLION

The INTERSTALLION working group aims to address the challenges in accessing, understanding, and comparing foreign breeding information in sport horse breeding. With over 60 studbooks and more than 130,000 foals born per year, the concentration of sport horse breeding in Europe makes it crucial to establish a standardized approach. This initiative focuses on surveying breeding objectives, testing systems, and breeding value estimation methods to enhance transparency and comparability across countries. Pilot projects and research studies aim to investigate genetic correlations and establish guidelines for improved breeding programs. The INTERSTALLION website serves as a platform for information dissemination.

maureen
Download Presentation

INTERSTALLION

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. INTERSTALLION Steven Janssens (secretary) Jan Philipsson (chairmen)

  2. INTERSTALLION • Working group of the EAAP established in 1998 Improve accessibility, understanding and comparability of foreign breeding information across countries. • Is this a problem….?

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

  4. % matings by foreign stallions country perc. origin Netherlands 31% Germany, France France 6% Germany Denmark 74% Germany, The Netherlands Sweden 62% Germany, The Netherlands

  5. How to use foreign information? • How should we compare test results? • How should we compare breeding values?

  6. Same stallion: different values? G. Ramiro Z Netherlands 122 (97%) France +12 (88%) Belgium 98.5 (95%) Ireland 98 (10%)

  7. Correct interpretation requires information on: • How are breeding objectives defined? • How are horses tested? • How are breeding values calculated?

  8. INTERSTALLION initial research initiatives: • Survey breeding objectives • Survey on testing systems and breeding value estimation

  9. Survey breeding objectives…

  10. Performance testing

  11. Three types of performance tests competition test capacity field station accuracy

  12. 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

  13. 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

  14. 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

  15. How to improve transparency and comparability?

  16. 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

  17. INTERSTALLION further research initiatives: • Information exchange • harmonisation • Is across country evaluation possible?

  18. 1. Exchange information • http://www.interstallion.org • standardised information on: • breeding population • breeding objective • testing methods • genetic evaluation systems

  19. 2. Harmonise

  20. 3. Is across country evaluation possible? • Genetic connectedness • Genetic correlations start of pilot projects

  21. 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

  22. Id numbers !! Ramiro, G. Ramiro Z Germany, Holstein ramiro 210389565 Belgium, sBs ramiro z X-188 Belgium, BWP ramiro z 1317Netherlands, KWPN g.ramiro z 294 France ramiro 59041861

  23. Pilot project I • Test results of horses • Station or field test • Young horses • DWBKWPNSWBHANHOL

  24. Results phase 1….

  25. Results gen. correlation • Only between DWB and SWB • Very high gen. Correlations between similar traits dressage, jumping

  26. Pilot project II • Competition data(jumping) • Breeding valuestallions • DWBKWPNSWBHANHOLISHBWP, sBsCSF

  27. Connectedness

  28. Genetic correlations

  29. 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

  30. .. role in the future... • Return to status of working group • Focuss on research on emerging traits (defects, longevity, temperament, ..) • Information dissemination (website)

  31. acknowledgements • Interstallion members • Swedish Agricultural University • KULeuven with support from Vlaams Fokkerij Centrum and Vlaams Varkens stamboek

More Related