Simone Savoia

• PhD
• Geneticist at Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding

Abstract Background International evaluations combine data from different countries allowing breeders to have access to larger panels of elite bulls and to increase the accuracy of estimated breeding values (EBV). However, international and national evaluations can use different sources of information to compute EBV (EBVINT and EBVNAT, respectively...

National genomic evaluation systems use foreign sire evaluations from MACE as phenotypic information, combined with genotypes to generate national GEBV. The national GEBV computed from MACE cannot be used as input data for MACE without double-counting genomic information. To avoid this double-counting, Interbull requires that national EBV provided...

Background Compared to national evaluations, international collaboration projects further improve accuracies of estimated breeding values (EBV) by building larger reference populations or performing a joint evaluation using data (or proxy of them) from different countries. Genomic selection is increasingly adopted in beef cattle, but, to date, the...

Beef cattle international evaluations, led by Interbeef, combine data from different countries to compute international estimated breeding values (EBVINT) which are expressed on the same country scale as national ones, allowing participating countries to compare national and foreign sires. These two EBV might be in disagreement due to differences i...

In across-country genomic predictions for dairy cattle, 2 kinds of bull information can be used as dependent variables. The first is estimated breeding value (EBV) from the national genetic evaluations, assuming genetic correlations between countries are less than 1. The second is EBV from multitrait across-countries evaluation (MACE), assuming gen...

In December 2020 Interbull Centre launched a new Service for the international genomic evaluation of small Holstein populations: "InterGenomics-Holstein" (IG-HOL). The IG-HOL Service's principles are to: a) have two categories of participants: IG-HOL countries (small Holstein populations' countries), and "Contributors" (larger Holstein populations'...

In beef cattle, international evaluations led by Interbeef involve 13 countries and 5 breeds. Beef cattle national genomic evaluations have been implemented in some countries, while others will follow soon. Therefore, the Interbeef pedigree-based evaluations need to be adapted to include genomic information. A single-step model where pedigree, phen...

Male reproductive performances are often ignored in cattle breeding programmes, although semen traits might be used to improve bull breeding soundness. Effects of genetic and environmental factors on semen production and quality traits were estimated in 693 Piemontese bulls with the aim of providing the first estimates of genetic parameters for sem...

Spectroscopic predictions can be used for the genetic improvement of meat quality traits in cattle. No information is however available on the genetics of meat absorbance spectra. This research investigated the phenotypic variation and the heritability of meat absorbance spectra at individual wavelengths in the ultraviolet–visible and near-infrared...

Background The possibility of assessing meat quality traits over the meat chain is strongly limited, especially in the context of selective breeding which requires a large number of phenotypes. The main objective of this study was to investigate the suitability of portable infrared spectrometers for phenotyping beef cattle aiming to genetically imp...

The use of near-infrared spectrometers (NIRS) for predicting meat quality traits directly in the abattoir was tested with three trials. For the calibration trial, spectra were acquired from the cross-cut surface of the Longissimus thoracis muscle on 1166 carcasses of Piemontese young bulls with a portable visible-near-infrared spectrometer (Vis-NIR...

A key concern in beef production is how to improve carcass and meat quality traits. Identifying the genomic regions and biological pathways that contribute to explaining variability in these traits is of great importance for selection purposes. In this study, genome wide-association ( GWAS ) and pathway-based analyses of carcass traits (age at slau...

Age at slaughter (AS), carcass weight (CW), carcass daily gain (CDG), conformation (EUS), and rib-eye area (REA) were recorded on 1166 Piemontese young bulls. pH, lightness (L*), redness (a*), yellowness (b*), hue angle (h*), chroma (C*), purge loss (PL), cooking loss (CL) and shear force (WBSF) were assessed on the Longissimus thoracis muscle of t...

Age at slaughter (AS), carcass weight (CW), carcass daily gain (CDG), conformation (EUS), and rib-eye area (REA) were recorded on 1166 Piemontese young bulls. pH, lightness (L*), redness (a*), yellowness (b*), hue angle (h*), chroma (C*), purge loss (PL), cooking loss (CL) and shear force (WBSF) were assessed on the Longissimus thoracis muscle of t...

Using the Piemontese breed as a case study, we characterised beef production systems within the EU classification, and investigated their effects on carcass and meat quality traits. The research involved 1,327 young bulls fattened on 115 farms. The production systems identified by hierarchical cluster analysis were: traditional (restricted feeding...

Spectrocolorimeters are the most commonly used instruments for measuring meat colour because they provide readings in the device independent CIELÃaÃbà colour space which corresponds well with the colour perception by humans. These instruments, that can accurately measure colour surface of a sample uniform and rather small, cannot completely represe...

Genetic improvement of meat quality is complicated by the large number of traits involved and is usually limited by difficulties and costs related to sample collection and analytical procedures, which involve time-consuming lab methods. The “QualiPiem” project is aimed at exploring the possibility of selecting meat quality traits in Piemontese catt...