The FESASS Conference 2023 will take place on 4 and 5 December 2023 in Rome (Italy). It is intended as a contribution to the implementation of the European Farm to Fork Strategy (F2f). In this context, it is crucial to put animal health back at the centre of reflections and actions, as numerous health threats are developing at the gates and on the territory of the European Union. It is a question of working on the strong links between animal health and the new challenges of sustainability, animal welfare and the quality of our products.

The organisation of the conference, which had already been announced by the FESASS Vice-President for Quality and Food Safety, Mr Vito AMENDOLARA, at the FESASS meeting in Elvas, Portugal, in autumn 2019, has been delayed due to the COVID pandemic. However, its objective remains unchanged and is still highly relevant for the European livestock industry.

On 7 November 2023, the member organizations of the European Federation of Animal Health Services (FESASS) met for an Extraordinary General Assembly in Brussels to adopt new statutes that changed the legal form. On this occasion, the members of the Board were also newly appointed and the top management was confirmed in office.

The European Exporters' Platform (ExPla) welcomed the Irish AI center Dovea Genetics as new member at its meeting on 28 May 2019 in the premises of ADT in Brussels. The representatives of the association based in Thurles (Ireland) will join the ExPla Working Group on Semen and Embryos (S&E). The ExPla is thus represented in 12 EU Member States, which collectively account for about three-quarters of all exports of live bovine breeding animals to Third countries and for about 85% of bovine semen exports throughout the EU.

The members of the European Exporters' Platform (ExPla) accepted the bid for membership of the Belgian breeders organisation Association Wallonne de l'Elevage (AWE). This has been decided at the ExPla meeting on 28 October 2015 at the premises of the ADT in Brussels.

The representatives of the association, based in Ciney (Belgium), will join ExPla's Working group on Semen and Embryos (S&E). ExPla is now represented in 10 EU Member States, which collectively account for more than 80% of breeding cattle exports and more than 85% of bovine semen exports throughout the EU.

The members of the European Platform of exporters of bovine genetics (Exporters' Platform, ExPla) have agreed to a deepening of their cooperation at European level. At their meeting on 13 October 2010 in Brussels in the premises of ADT they decided that the ExPla will in future meet in two working groups, the one taking care of the export of live cattle, and the other of the trade in bovine semen and embryos.

Zero-tolerance policy is putting the European livestock industry at risk and restricting consumers' freedom of choice

On 27 and 28 August, the German Agricultural Society (DLG) met in Kassel with representatives from the animal feed, agricultural, dairy and meat industries, as well as consumer representatives, government officials and scientists, to discuss the impact of the EU approval procedure for GMO constructs on the supply of feed protein and the prospects for the German and European livestock production industry.

PCV2 genotype definition creates exciting opportunities

The EU funded research consortium on Porcine Circovirus Diseases (PCVD) has recently proposed a new framework for international agreement on consistent naming for existing and future isolates of porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2), which will create significant opportunities for international research teams to compare and contrast findings. The methodology is based on the proportion of nucleotide sites at which two sequences being compared are different (p-distance). This value is found by dividing the number of nucleotide differences by the total number of nucleotides compared. The potential cut-off values to distinguish different genotypes are established through the construction of a p-distance/frequency histogram.

The PCVD project management team, lead by Prof Gordon Allan, warned against complacency: Porcine Circovirus Diseases continue to be a major problem on many pig farms worldwide and although significant progress has been made in understanding the virus there are still gaps in our understanding which the virus continues to exploit. Virus elimination remains a distant dream but the excellent response to vaccination raises serious unanswered questions about the sub-clinical effects of the virus and the duration that these have been affecting pig production. The Framework 6 PCVD project has published its 2008 newsletter that updates on progress in a number of key areas of investigation into the interaction between PCV2 and pigs. The Consortium continues to make good progress as it draws this EU Framework 6 programme of research to a conclusion in early 2009.

Read the full press release: www.pcvd.org/documents/2008_07_PCVD_PR.pdf

The Control of Porcine Circovirus Diseases (PCVDs): Towards Improved Food Quality and Safety is EU Project No.: 513928 and has been funded through the Sixth Framework Programme under Priority SSP/5.4.6 (Priority 5. Food Quality and Safety. The project started in December 2004 is being delivered by a multidisciplinary consortium from academia and industry with a total of 15 partners from North America and the EU. Reports from all work packages in the project are now available in the results section of the project website www.pcvd.org.

At its meeting on 26 April 2007 in Brussels, the COPA-COGECA Working Party on Breeding Cattle unanimously elected Mr Hans-Peter SCHONS as chairman of their group for a term of 2 years. The director of the German Animal Breeders Federation (ADT) takes over the mandate from M. Alain MALAFOSSE (UNCEIA, F), who was warmly thanked for having assumed with conviction and devotion the chairmanship of this group for 15 years.

For further information, please download COPA/COGECA's press release as from 26 april:  http://www.copa-cogeca.be/pdf/cdp_07_19_1e.pdf