Ezequiel Nicolazzi, Ph.D.
Chief Operation Officer
Ezequiel began at CDCB in September 2016 and now serves as Chief Operation Officer. He earned his Ph.D. in Biotechnology at UCSC (Piacenza, Italy). After that, he worked with various dairy and genetic research organizations in Italy: the Italian Holstein Association (ANAFI), the Italian Consortium for Research and Experimentation in Animal Breeding, and PTP Science Park. At PTP, he managed the bioinformatics team and managed national and international research projects.
Under his leadership at CDCB, the operations team has implemented several ground-breaking changes to genetic and genomic methodology, including implementation of genomic evaluations for crossbred animals and new traits such as disease resistance and gestation length.
Projects & Publications
Changes Slated for August Genetic Evaluations
When genetic evaluations are released on August 12, 2025, Holstein breeders will have a new selection trait to use and predicted transmitting abilities (PTAs) for calving traits will look a little bit different due to a base change.
Where Do Genetic Evaluations Come From?
Dairy producers worldwide use these evaluations each and every day for breeding, culling, and other management decisions. How those genetic values are used on farms is common knowledge, but where they come from may be a mystery to some.
August 2024 Changes: Impact on Evaluations
In the August 2024 evaluations, implemented changes had effects on all yield traits (Milk, Fat and Protein) and Heifer Livability, along with correlated traits of Productive Life and Cow Livability in some cases. Breed Base Representation (BBR) values were updated, with the annual reference population update and introduction of a revised SNP list.
Invited review: The future of selection decisions and breeding programs: What are we breeding for, and who decides?
Journal of Dairy Science, 2021
Multibreed genomic evaluation for production traits of dairy cattle in the United States using single-step genomic best linear unbiased predictor
Journal of Dairy Science, 2021
An alternative interpretation of residual feed intake by phenotypic recursive relationships in dairy cattle
Journal of Dairy Science, 2021
Single-step genomic predictions for yield traits in US Holsteins with unknown parent groups and phenotype-pedigree truncation
American Dairy Science Association, 2021
Genomic predictions for yield traits in US Holsteins with unknown parent groups
Journal of Dairy Science, 2020
Symposium review: Development, implementation, and perspectives of health evaluations in the United States
Journal of Dairy Science, 2020
Enhancements to U.S. genetic and genomic evaluations in 2018 and 2019
Interbull Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2020
Extending genomic evaluation to crossbred dairy cattle – US implementation
Interbull Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2019
EDITORIAL - AdaptMap: exploring goat diversity and adaptation
Genetics Selection Evolution, 2018
Functional SNP panel for parentage assessment and assignment in worldwide goat breeds
Genetics Selection Evolution, 2018
Zanardi: an open-source pipeline for multiple-species genomic analysis of SNP array data
Animal Genetics, 2016
SNPConvert: SNP array standardization and integration in livestock species
Microarrays, 2016
Review: software solutions for the livestock genomics SNP array revolution
Animal Genetics, 2015
SNPchiMp v.3: integrating and standardizing single nucleotide polymorphism data for livestock species
BMC genomics, 2015
Relative extended haplotype homozygosity signals across breeds reveal dairy and beef specific signatures of selection
Genetics Selection Evolution, 2015