Interbull Centre - Special Issue

Abstract

The Interbull Centre is a section of the Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics (HGEN) of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), and acts as the operational unit for Interbull and Interbeef, a permanent subcommittee and a working group of the International Committe for Animal Recording (ICAR), respectively.

Moreover, the Interbull Centre holds since 1996 the status of European Union Reference Body responsible for collaborating in rendering uniform the testing methods and the assessment of the results for pure-bred breeding animals of the bovine species, and is the designated European Union Reference  Centre (EURC) responsible for the "scientific and technical contribution to the harmonisation and improvement of the methods of performance testing and genetic evaluation of purebred breeding animals of the bovine species" as of 1 November 2018.

The Interbull Centre has the capacities and expertise as an International Central Data Hub, enabling International exchange of data and Quality Control.

For over 20 years, the Interbull Centre is responsible for the monitoring of the national genetic evaluation of cattle. The Interbull Centre team currently consists of 10 members of staff and conducts international genomic and genetic evaluations for beef and dairy cattle in 35 countries. For several years the Interbull Centre has distributed more than half a billion international estimated breeding values based on these geneic evaluations. The number of breeding values for international genomic evaluations is quickly increasing and is now over 80 million a year.

As such Interbull supports the dairy and beef industry with accurate genetic information on bulls of the major dairy and beef breeds for use by importers and exporters, thereby facilitating selection of the best genetics worldwide.

This document is testament to the expertise, infrastructure and international network that the Interbull Centre has built up in the two decades since its inception. The Interbull Centre:

- Is an internationally recognised institution; it provides genetic information services and applied researach for improvement of livestock to a worldwide network;

- Fulfills successfully its duties as the EU Reference Body for Zootechnics for 20 years;

-Is embedded within the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and as such is able to deal with topics at the highest scientific level, while also being supported by the Swedish State;

- Is embedded within the ICAR community as it is the Operational Unit of ICAR's permanent Sub-Committee INTERBULL, and its Working Group INTERBEEF;

The Interbull Centre and its staff fulful such a central role within the International dairy and beef genetic evaluation services, and perform its services according to ISO 9001:2015 principles.