1. Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory (AIPL): Objectives and Operation

2. Where AIPL Fits In
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the main research arm of USDA (8,000 employees with 2,000 scientists at >100 locations)
Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) is the largest center (1,900 employees and volunteers with 325 scientists)
Animal and Natural Resources Institute (ANRI) has 13 Laboratories and 3 support units
AIPL has a staff of 18 with 5 scientists

3. Mission of ANRI
Conduct research and develop technology transfer programs that ensure high quality and safe food while protecting the natural resource base and the environment
369 Federal employees
107 are scientists

4. Mission of AIPL
Genetically improve efficiency of dairy animals for yield (milk, fat, protein) and fitness (longevity, mastitis resistance, reproduction, conformation)

5. Objectives for
Maintain, enhance, and expand development of a national dairy database of identification (domestic and foreign animals), production (yield, milk composition), fitness (conformation, longevity), reproduction (dystocia, fertility), and health (mastitis, disease resistance) traits to support research on dairy animal genetics and management
Provide data to stakeholders and other researchers submitting proposals compatible with industry guidelines

6. Objectives continued
Improve the accuracy of genetic evaluations for yield traits through inclusion of additional data, appropriate weighting of deviant data, and improved methodology
Identify and adapt appropriate statistical tools for analysis of complex dairy pedigrees and develop bioinformatic tools to automate data processing in support of quantitative trait locus detection, marker testing, and mapping methods

7. Objectives continued
Improve genetic rankings for overall economic merit by development of evaluations for additional traits (calving ease with maternal effects included, fertility, other health and management variables) and by determining more precisely the economic values of traits in the index through improved profit functions from updated incomes and expenses associated with each trait available for selection

8. Objectives continued
Characterize dairy industry programs and practices (milk record-keeping associations, breed registry societies, artificial-insemination organizations) to document status and changes in data collection and use and in phenotypic and genetic trends (evaluation summaries and stability)

9. Genetic Evaluations Traits Bulls and cows
Yield (milk, fat, protein, component percentages)
Fitness (productive life, somatic cell score, conformation for breeds other than Holstein, calving ease)
Bulls and cows
Quarterly (February, May, August, November)
Released in United States and >40 other countries

10. Additional Industry Interaction
Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding
Regional research projects
Interbull
Industry committees
milk recording, breed registry societies, NAAB, American Dairy Science Association)
Coordination of uniformity of formats for data exchange

11. Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding
Representatives from PDCA, NAAB, and DHI
Participation by USDA and universities as resource organizations
Promotion of genetic improvement through collaboration and cooperation
Development of consensus list of research needs, and prioritization of these (high, medium, low)