A historic and important agreement was reached and signed officially in March between ANAFI, United States and Canada, with the objective of collaborating and improving genomic selection resulting in great benefits for the selection system in the three countries involved.

Through a three-way collaboration, the genomic information of thousands of bulls will be shared among the partners to significantly improve the reliability of genomic indices for countries who already officially publish genomic indices as well as for those who are preparing to go official.

Two key factors will determine the increase of this reliability, one concerns the exchange of the genotypes of the participants, and the other concerns a commitment for the development of high-density technologies capable of measuring genetic variation in much more detail.

Future developments are also expected to greatly improve the selection of traits associated with health and functionality of livestock which are so important for farmers.

The subjects involved in the agreement besides ANAFI, are respectively the US' NAAB (National Association of Animal Breeders) on behalf of the Artificial Insemination organizations' project the Cooperative Dairy DNA Repository, and C.D.N. (Canadian Dairy Network) which is the Canadian genetic evaluation center.

ANAFI has also signed the agreement on behalf of the 4 major Italian AI centers (Semen Italy, CIZ, ELPZOO and Intermizoo) to proceed with a development to which ANAFI and the AI centers are committed for considerable time.

The president of NAAB, Gordon Doak says: "We are pleased to collaborate with ANAFI to improve genomic predictions as a selection tool for the benefit of dairy producers." Also the president of ANAFI Maurizio Garlappi has said: "It is a great pleasure also for us to have accomplished an agreement to collaborate with the Nord-American consortium, which represents a step forward in the development of the Holstein breeding."