Improved breeding values for general health

In November 2017 several improvements were implemented in the Nordic Cattle Genetic Evaluation (NAV) for general health. The main improvement in the new evaluation for RDC, Holstein and Jersey is the change from a sire model to an animal model which implies that cows get breeding values based also on own information. The evaluation for Jersey now include data also from Finland and Sweden and all disease traits which was not the case in the previous model. Further, information on BHB and acetone from milk recording has, when available, been included to increase the reliability of breeding values for metabolic diseases. To better utilize this information the previous trait or breeding value metabolic diseases has been divided to two traits; ketosis and other metabolic diseases. Data quality has been improved by harmonizing data used from the different countries. All together, these changes have an impact on breeding values for sires but a larger effect on breeding values for cows.

 

Read more about the new evaluation for general health in the article Improved breeding values for general health and in NAV newsletter for November 2017