PRESS RELEASE
Date: 13.07.15
For immediate use
CIS identifies genetic potential with new ‘GenoCIS’ service
The Cattle Information Service (CIS) has launched a new innovative technological service for
customers; ‘GenoCIS’. Genomic testing allows farmers to make better informed decisions
about herd performance. With GenoCIS, genomic testing for herds is offered from a DNA
sample for females of any age and any breed.
Genomics helps identify the animals with the greatest potential in the herd and can verify
the parentage of the animal. The technology enables dairy cows to be bred to their
potential and develop strong traits such as longevity, fertility and disease resistance.
What the new service includes…
The new service launched at Livestock 2015 runs extracted DNA on the ICBF IDBV2 SNP chip
and will include genomic indexes of Holsteins, parentage of the cow and genetic traits,
including blad, dumps, coat colour, polled and fertility haplotypes. If the sire is genotyped,
GenoCIS will include sire verification, and parentage validation if both sire and dam are
genotyped. Sire and dam genotyping may be either using SNPs or micro satellites. Options
at an additional cost include beta casein A2, CVM and brachyspina - and extended
parentage check using micro satellites. This advanced genetic solution can be tailored to a
specific Holstein herd to provide accurate genetic predictions that will help make informed
decisions - and ultimately increase economic return on breeding programmes.
Suzanne Harding, CIS Project Services Executive, commented; “Genomic evaluations have
the ability to rapidly increase the rate of Holstein genetic improvement in many traits. By
selecting to work with CIS and in doing a genomic test, farmers have the capability to
identify the animals with the greatest potential in the herd, verify the parentage of that
specific animal and breed animals according to their potential. ”
A free information pack is available from CIS by calling 01923 695319.
ENDS
Notes to editors
The CIS (Cattle Information Service) is farmer-owned and farmer-controlled. Involving all the leading
PRESS RELEASE
cattle organisations, the objective is to improve standards of service,
accuracy and value throughout all dairy herd management
information practices.
Historically milk recording was seen as a way to get official milk production records, and this is still
important especially when marketing cows, but The Cattle Information Service (CIS) provides so
much more. Fertility, health, conformation and ancestry of cows are all important factors that
determine if a cow is an asset to the herd or a liability.
The development of the web based 'Your Herd' management program, has enhanced the power of
milk-recording systems, with tools that encourage the farmer and advisors to view the complete
picture of the herd and investigate individual cows, allowing essential management decisions to be
made without the need to spend valuable time wading through information from several different
sources.
www.thecis.co.uk
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For more press information contact Suzanne Harding, suzanne@thecis.co.uk or call 01923
695319
PDF flyer attached
Photo attached