Joint meeting at Vilhelmsborg, Aarhus Dansk Varmblod s residence on the address: Vilhelmsborg Allé 1, DK-8320 Maarslet Telephone: +45 87 47 54 00, Fax: +45 87 47 54 10 on July 16 th and July 17 th 2008 Present: Nicholas Finnerty, Jim Flanagan, Johan Knaap, Siem Korver, Xavier Guibert, Thomas Nissen, Klaus Miesner, Rik van Miert, Rudi Eerdekens, Karina Christiansen, Jan Pedersen, and Christina Brogaard Lund (ref.) Excused: Paul Hubert Agenda: 1. Finances, balance July 2. Budget 2008, website 3. Annual meetings a) Program b) General Assembly c) Seminar 4. Harmonization of EVA tests 5. Horse International 6. XML 7. Strategic Plan 2012 8. Members: Latvia International Jumper Futurity Societé Hippique Francaise Letter from Friesian society 9. Higher VAT rate on the horse sector 10. Young Breeders 11. Rankings 12. Annual Plan 2009 13. A.O.B. Minutes: 1. Finances, balance July Finances are good at present, though communications and website costs are a little more than budgeted. 1
2. Budget 2008 See enclosure 1. 3. Annual meetings a) Program See enclosure 2. b) General Assembly Slight corrections for the agenda were proposed according to comply with the existing statutes. See enclosure 3. c) Seminar Possible topics and speakers for the seminars in Lyon were discussed. An interesting, broad-spectered, and relevant program is the aim. See enclosure 4. Observers that are not members may be invited by the President to the General Assembly, for instance representatives from the National Federations. Studbooks that are not invited, cannot participate. The seminars, though, are a public event and this should be up to the hosting society, if other people than the invited organisations may participate. 4. Harmonization of EVA tests Aymeric Hans from the Community Reference Laboratory for Equine Diseases (CLR) attended the meeting to present the visions for the harmonization of EVA tests for which he at CLR will now be responsible in the terms of collecting data from the National Reference Laboratories in Europe (NRL s), testing and researching for which PCR s are the best, to offer technical and scientific support to NRL s and the EU Commission. LERPA is thus appointed to be the European Reference Laboratory for Equine Diseases. Situated in one of the two French CRL s, LERPAZ in Paris and LERPA in Normandy, the latter being his home base, Aymeric Hans is in charge of 3 of the 8 equine diseases under the roof of LERPAZ and LERPA; EVA, Equine Herpes virus, and Equine Infectious Ansemia. In the following, we will focus on EVA. EAV is the name of the virus and EVA (Equine Viral Arteritis) is the name of the disease. Aymeric Hans went through the clinical signs, some calculations and numbers from the French outbreak last year and how they are dealing with it in France, where in total they have 7000 breeding stallions of all kinds of breeds. 2
Two main methods are the most used at present in the NRL s around Europe; The viral isolation (from semen) on cell culture, an OIE method recognised by the EU, that takes about 2-3 weeks before you have a result, and the RT-PCR test, which is not recognised by OIE and EU. These tests, which in method and outcome vary significantly all over Europe, take 2-3 days to accumulate a result. These tests are of course cheaper than the viral isolation, but do not necessarily come up with equal results, so harmonization is needed soonest possible. In USA, the NRL in Lexington, Kentucky, uses the OIE recognized viral isolation method. For the NRL s it will be of high interest to share data and increase communication with this lab because in the end they will be able to get technical and scientific support along with a possible new, more reliable and cheaper PCR test, that is to be developed. Semen should still be tested and controlled locally, because the EU does not want to have infected semen shipped all over Europe. EU will finance the work of the CLR regarding harmonisation of EVA-tests. Aymeric Hans will produce wording for a letter and newsletter for our European member studbooks and for the web, to help them stimulate the NRL s to cooperate with LERPA and to provide Aymeric with contact data for the NRL s in their respective countries. The problem is, that the status of a possible NRL is not always publicly known, and they are not necessarily registered at the governments some may be, but it is not clear at all. Often, it is just used as a network and nothing that the labs use for marketing themselves, so unfortunately they are not easily found. See enclosure 4 for further notes on EVA. 5. Horse International The contract expires at the end of this year, and Horse Int. will be informed by letter of the decision that it will not be prolonged. 6. XML Xavier Guibert has had a new student appointed to deal with the XML project, her name is Bérengère Lacroix, and the project as a whole is in very good progress, as the UELN has been stamped and approved by the EU. The FEI is a central point of the project, and essential in the efforts to encourage everybody to connect and use UELN. If the FEI does not receive correct information on horses from the studbooks, it does not work. The riders data are correct now. 3
The system is made so that for instance the KWPN can enquire the FEI for performance data made by KWPN-registered horses in the USA but only horses registered by their own studbook, and only if the horses have a correct UELN and are registered with their correct UELN in the country from where the performance data are extracted. See enclosure 5 for further details on the XML, provided by Dominique Delcourt from the FEI. 7. Strategic Plan 2012 As it is, the voting system is not practically possible and if it should ever be necessary to have a voting at a General Assembly, for many reasons the system could collapse. A standard operation procedure for how to actually vote will be made. The latest scheme of number of foals in the member countries will therefore be sent to Jim Flanagan prior to the GA. The average of the last three years foal numbers will be subject to the voting, and if not all three years numbers are available, then the average of what ever is registered. The issue of the organization being subject to European law is still being worked at. Regarding membership, it was cemented, that it is not possible to be an associate member, if an associate fulfils the criteria for full membership. Department Development will forward a letter to the organizations that are to become full members and pay full membership fee. It was also debated what the correct definition of a Warmblood horse is, as well as the future definition of an associate member. When the statutes were drafted, the criteria of a sport horse society eligible for membership status was that it was breeding sport horses for at least one of the Olympic disciplines, because then the horse was a warmblood. Additionally, a future minimum criteria of the members was discussed. All three items will be discussed at the next meeting, as well as the possibility of introducing a third kind of membership, for instance supporting organizations. Detailed definition on the mother-daughter relationship among members will have to be deferred to 2009. A previous proposal to consider if there should be distinguished between European and Non-European members, it was settled, that we should not distinguish, as we are an international organization and should stay so. For the item Administration it was agreed that there were no proposals for change at this time. Membership fees are not to be changed. 4
The Board has a possibility to appoint honorary members and this opportunity has not been used for a long time. Hanfried Haring and Xavier Libbrecht were agreed as highly eligible for new Honorary members of the WBFSH. 8. Members: a) Latvia The Board accepts that both Latvian associations are edible for membership. b) International Jumper Futurity The society has not completed an application. They claim to be a studbook, but we cannot see any signs of registration of foals by birth. So it is not a studbook in conventional terms it rather seems to be a sport organization that makes young horse breeding classes in dressage and jumping, i.e. a register for sport horses only. c) Societé Hippique Francaise It is the only organization that arranges competitions where only WBFSHmember registered horses may participate they do a lot of work to support our rules. The society is appointed by the Government. They select sport horses and send the results to the National Federation for the use of genetic evaluations. They represent breeders and owners of young sport horses. d) The Royal Friesian Studbook Klaus Miesner and Jan Pedersen will meet with the representatives of the KFPS during the WBYHC in Verden in July 08. The consideration of application awaits the further discussions about the strategic plan. 9. Higher VAT rate on the horse sector There are new factors in this situation. We await the results of these issues. 10. Young Breeders A fundamental decision was made in the Board a year ago that we should support the Young Breeders and provide a platform. The general impression of the meeting in Elmshorn June 08, seen form the Danish participants side, was that the meeting was in vain. We have to help them and it is very important to us as breeding societies to encourage and stimulate them. Organizing takes money as well. It is important to know how much the host and the WBFSH have to spend. 5
How can we make standardized forms of how and in what disciplines to be judged in? A small group of 2 showing experts and 2 executives was proposed to make a standard. In Lyon, there will be a group with a representative from each studbook to make standards get further organized. It was proposed that the Board could nominate a coordinator that has the power to support the hosts in the arranging of the event and take care that the standards and the concerns of the WBFSH are followed. Such a person will be appointed at the meeting in Lyon. The Irish Sport Horse will host the next YBC on 24-26 July 2009 and they will put some funding in it. WBFSH could sponsor a challenge cup and in future there should be an amount for the YBC in the budget. 11. Rankings There are still many mistakes in the rankings and we have not received the correction file which we receive late summer each year. 12. Annual Plan The annual plan for 2009 was reviewed. We should insert that we must monitor opportunities to become subject to international law rather than the one of the Netherlands, to review statutes in regard to the definition of members and associates, implement stallion rankings, improvement of quality of data for the FEI database. To be cancelled: the present items 10, 11, 13.b, c, and d. See enclosure 6. 13. AOB The FEI asked the WBFSH for their view at a certain situation; they want to cancel the 6-y-o. cross country class in Le Lion D Angers among other things because the class gets smaller each year. But the 7-y-o s can participate at the Olympics and if you cancel the 6-y-o. class there is actually no young horse championship, and the WBFSH finds them interesting from a breeding point of view. Xavier Guibert has asked the FEI to suppress the horses without pedigree in the championship, because it is about young horses, but how to establish an age accurately at 6 or 7 years of age? Besides, it s a World Breeding Championship for Young Horses. It was decided that there should be sent a new letter for the FEI regarding this. Vilhelmsborg, August 10 th 2008 6