The PREP database: Extension to Genomic Form

Abstract

The Performance Recording, Evaluation and Publication (PREP) database is an online platform developed by Interbull Centre under the umbrella of the Centre’s activities as the European Union Reference Centre (EURC) for Zootechnics, specifically designed for breed associations and National Genetic Evaluation Centres in order to submit and share descriptive information for a broad range of breeds and traits for both dairy and beef cattle. The main purposes of PREP include transparency, comparison and harmonization of information collected and used at the national level. To date, there are different electronic forms available to collect descriptive information for both dairy and beef cattle regarding conventional genetic evaluation for several trait groups. Next steps would be to expand PREP, so to be able to also collect descriptive information for genomic information. To do this, different approaches, and their level of pros and cons, were considered leading to identify a slightly different form’s structure, compared to the one currently applied for conventional evaluations, as the most convenient for recording genomic information. The new form’s structure will have all breeds and trait groups in one form, rather than having different forms per trait groups, as specific general traits’ information regarding, for example, trait definition, method of recording, heritability etc. will be already available in the dedicated conventional forms. Moreover, the selected approach will allow to copy/paste information across different breeds/trait groups, which often do appear to be very similar (if not identical) when dealing with genomic evaluations. In summary, the new  electronic genomic form will be considered as the general form for users  to provide descriptive information related to their national genomic evaluations.