burgdorf2007

	Burgdorf 2007		Symposium summary




	Burgdorf 2007 Summary of Berner IWG Meeting held Thursday 9th August 2007 Hotel Berchtold, Burgdorf, Switzerland Persons present
	Laura Bernetti CIABS (Italy) Inge Bibby DBSK (Denmark) Marion Brown (South Africa) Mariangela Brunelli SIBB (Italy) Martha Cehrs KBS (Switzerland) Maria Crifasi BMDCA (USA) Birgitte Damsgaard (Denmark) Tarja Ekman SSFS (Finland) Steve Green BMDC of GB (UK) Antonio Indrizzi SIBB (Italy) Janelle May (visitor) Ilona Lorenz SSV (Germany)		Bjoerg Andreassen NBSK (Norway) Isabella Kraft VSSŌ (Austria) Jan Kranenberg (Netherlands) Simona Lissoni SIBB (Italy) Pat Long Berner-Garde (USA) Christine Malherbe AFBS (France) Dr. Norbert Bachmann SSV (Germany) Joye Neff BMDCA, Berner-Garde (USA) Ettore Menozzi Piacentini CIABS (Italy) Joël van Haute BKZS (Belgium) Silvana Vogel Tedeschi CIABS (Italy) Dr. Wolfgang Zörner VSSŌ (Austria)
	1] Pat Long agreed to take the meeting minutes for today. 2] Dr Bachmann resigned as President. Steve Green was proposed as president, and approved with no objections. Dr. Bachmann was thanked for his four years of service. Steve Green took the chair for the meeting. 3] Discussion of the Constitution a. Part 1, which was the proposed Mission Statement - approved. b. Part 2, officers and member clubs - approved. c. Part 3, meetings – approved d. Part 4, notice and agenda of meetings – approved with the following change: - section c - the word “club” is to be removed. e. Part 5, voting - approved with the following changes: - add section e: 50% + 1 of the voting members (including proxy voters) shall form a quorum. - add section f: Voting may occur in person or in writing within 21 days of the call for a vote. f. Part 6, the constitution – approved g. Part 7, jurisdiction – approved h. Part 1, red highlights added, grey removed - approved 4] Pat Long was proposed as secretary, approved. 5] Birgitte Damsgaard was proposed to continue as webmaster, approved. 6] Website cost, there is no hosting cost, but the annual fee for the domain name is either 10 or 20€. Last year it was donated by Martha Cehrs, this year it was donated by Pat Long. 7] Discussion of website content. It was decided to include: - Summary of health symposiums 2007 Burgdorf – will be supplied 2006 Como – is on the Berner-Garde website 2005 Salzburg – CD to be supplied by Antonio Indrizzi 2003 Hohenroda – Sylvana will translate from the German 2002 Lenzburg – Martha will provide 2000 Langenthal – Martha will provide - Summary of IWG Meetings 2007 - Martha 2005 – Dr. Zörner 2003 – Sylvana & Dr. Bachmann 2002 – Martha 2000 – Martha - Links to health info and clubs - Info or links to current studies - Symposium notes or approved detail of presentations - Articles about health, breeding, and club efforts - Prefer to have content in English if available, with links to content in other languages, or to have the non-English content on the website, if it is not available elsewhere - Submissions to be given to Birgitte, who will put it on the website - Birgitte will put “last update date” on the website - IWG president’s email address will be put on the website as a contact Short break 8] Clubs presented updates on what they are doing: o SIBB – Antonio Indrizzi - The club has a new website which includes health articles - Supported Dr. André’s research with sample submissions  Pre-paid shipping by the club for all Italian Berners  24 hour shipping  Information about the samples goes only to Dr. André, not to the club  Had only 20 submissions since Jan 1, 2007  Can share information on shipping arrangements - Alberto Vittone Award was created in honor of the deceased club president, the first award grants for research projects will be presented at the health symposium tomorrow o DBSK – Inge Bibby - Two PhD students are studying 200 dogs and will track them for three years with a scan and blood samples every three months - malignant histiocytosis study - An oncologist is the newest member of their breeding committee - Their 30 year anniversary is next year, and they would like to host next year’s health symposium, a date to be established in the next 30 days or so, but in the September or October timeframe - They were thanked for the offer, which was accepted o CIABS – Silvana Vogel Tedeschi - Silvana had missed the last part of the prior presentation - Next year is their 20th anniversary, and they would like to host the health symposium; after some discussion it was decided that they would host it in 2009 - Their club show will be April 19th & 20th 2008 in the Verona area, but it was decided that Autumn 2009 would be better for the health symposium and Berner-IWG meeting, and they agreed - They were thanked for the offer, which was accepted - Publishing data is difficult because of privacy rules. Data can be shared on a voluntary basis only - Breeding is controlled with rules, two types of pedigrees, normal, and “riproduzione selezionata” where the rules are proposed by CIABS to the national kennel club (ENCI/FCI) - CIABS are selecting healthy stud dogs over 7 years and encouraging their use at stud. - They have 950 BMDs in the stud book with information on 40-45% of them, but information cannot be shared without owners permission - Dr. Gallicchio is studying longevity and cause of death - Genetic index  Breeding animals, developed for Hip Dysplasia in Boxers  Not a breeding value  Being developed with the cooperation of ENCI, CeLeMaSche, and U of Padua  Could be used for longevity o AFBS - Christine Malherbe - The club is working with Dr. André - Working on longevity ; collecting pedigrees, date and cause of death; they have a database of 30,000 Berners, but will only share it with clubs that will share their information with them - Promoting use of older stud dogs o SSFS - Tarja Ekman - Collecting date and cause of death - Health fund to support necropsies and path exams, only assist if it is agreed the information will be shared openly - Collecting information on veterans, put more value on those lines - Lectures on longevity and Objective 10 - Want to add death dates in Finnish Kennel Club website/database - Focus on collecting ages of breeding dogs and bitches o SSV - Dr. Norbert Bachmann - Blood samples to University of Giessen - Transparency  Must know information on 10 of 14 dogs in the pedigree  DogBase has about 40,000 dogs, about 5000 with death data  Require informed decisions - using a lot more foreign dogs for breeding, need to start collecting data - inheritability quotient is high for longevity - want a longevity index for breeding decisions - they can make the rules, since they give the pedigree - there is a separate database, but they are assisting Austria in developing one - DogBase is only for those dogs bred and registered in Germany - Sharing – they need rules for one database o BGF – Pat Long - Berner-Garde has an open database, with about 50,000 dogs, about 8,000 with health information - There is information on many foreign dogs in the database - There are rules for how the data is collected and stored; health information is stored as anecdotal or diagnosed - There are litter reports - BG has started a DNA Repository to bank blood and tissue samples for future studies - Submission and storage cost for the repository is being paid for by BG and the BMDCA - Michigan State University also is doing pathology for tumor tissues - Samples will be available for research o VSSŌ - Dr. Wolfgang Zörner - Club represents all four Swiss breeds - Isabella Kraft is the new BMD breeding supervisor, and the club’s IWG representative - Changed the breeding rules, much stricter about inbreeding - A pedigree is given to the new owner showing ages of dogs - Kennel Club recommendation: dogs that work must be healthy - Encouraging people to do something with their dogs - Working with the SSV on a database program o BKZS - Joël van Haute - Trying to collect data, but it’s difficult - Using the same shipping methods as SIBB, only 15 samples were collected, none from any breeders o NBSK - Bjoerg Andreassen - Sent forms to owners, collected by the breeding committee, will add data (even if it goes back years ago) – trying to get death information - Have a fund to use for pathology o South Africa - Marion Brown (South Africa) - A study on tick born diseases being done at University o KBS - Martha Cehrs - Have been working on organizing the show and the symposium - Have a health foundation with new people on board - Sent one blood sample to Dr. André o BMDCGB - Steve Green - Blood collecting ground to a halt from lack of interest - Free draw, but not much participation Comments were added about the difficulty to get participation, clubs have to work through breeders, and it is difficult to get through to pet owners. In addition, veterinarians often push pet people not to x-ray. Steve Green closed the meeting. Respectfully submitted by Pat Long.