Quality Analysis of Dairy Herd Improvement Data from Henan Province

The dairy herd improvement data from Henan Province were analyzed statistically to establish screening criteria for relevant data, thereby laying a foundation for genetic evaluation of dairy cows. With the 2 152 451 test-day records about 155 893 Chinese Holstein dairy cows collected by the Henan Dairy Herd Improvement Center from January 2008 to April 2016, the dynamics of test times during a complete lactation, test interval during a complete lactation, days in milk （DIM） of first test-day record, daughter descendant number and herd number of bull, age at first calving and pedigree integrity rate among different years and different herd sizes were analyzed by MEANS order of SAS 9.4. In addition, the data that were applicable to genetic evaluation were screened by SQL program. The results showed that during 2008-2015, the number of cow individuals participating in DHI in Henan Province increased from 7 379 to 93 706; the test-day milk yield increased from 19.91 to 24.05 kg; the somatic cell count reduced from 411.09×10^3 to 277.08×10^3 cells/ml; the percentage of cows with DIM ranging from 5-305 d reached 70.92%; the average test times increased from 3.20 to 6.31 times; the test interval decreased from 70.22 to 33.83 d; the dairy cows with age at first calving of 25 months were dominant, accounting for 12.57%; the bulls whose daughter descendant number was 20 or more and the daughters were distributed in 10 or more farms accounted for 6.05%; the one-generation pedigree integrity rate was 82.54%; the percentage of data that could be used for genetic evaluation was screened as 20.67%, which was lower than the results of other similar studies.

Role of the clinical immunology laboratory in disease monitoring

Immunological investigations provide useful informa-tion to guide diagnosis of several disorders. Many such tests are also commonly repeated at intervals, in an effort to facilitate disease monitoring. In general how-ever, immunology test results are often slow to alter. Furthermore, audit activity has indicated that repeated testing accounts for a substantial workload in many immunology services, which may waste resources and compromise the effcient completion of necessary tests. Consequently, the need and appropriate mini-mum interval between repeated testing requires critical evaluation. In this review, the clinical utility of repeat-ed performance of several common immunology inves-tigations has been evaluated, based upon published evidence. In some cases （ e.g. , paraprotein quantifca-tion, or measurement of anti-glomerular basement membrane antibodies）, repeated testing provides vital clinical information and can be justifed on a frequent and individualized basis. However, many other investi-gations provided by immunology services provide less valuable information when used to aid disease moni-toring rather than diagnosis. It is hoped that the data summarized here will facilitate a more evidence-based approach to repeated testing. Such information may also assist with the local implementation of demand management strategies based upon setting of mini-mum retesting intervals for these investigations.