Upon invitation of the American Association of Bovine Practitioner, the 17th World Buiatrics Congress was held in St Paul, U.S.A., from August 31th to September 4th, 1992, in conjunction with the 25th American Association of Bovine Practitioners Conference.1300 veterinarians, 320 accompanying persons, 450 exhibitors, 45 students and 20 press from 31 countries participated in the scientific and social programs.

B. Scientific programme

160 oral and 60 poster communications were presented on the following topics: Helminthology and Anthelmintics, Entomology and Protozoology, Gastroenterology, Digestive Dysfunctions, Respiratory Diseases, Endemic Virus Diseases, Immunology, Epidemic Virus Diseases, Production and Health Management, Genetics and Theriogenology, Epidemiology, Metabolic/Nutrition/Toxicology, Theriogenology, Mastitis, Reproductive Update, BVD: More Questions than Answers, New Approaches to Raising Healthy Calves, the Financial Health of your Practice, World Class Practitioner Tips, Challenges Facing Everyone Associated with the Dairy Industry, Education of Current and Future Dairy Practitioners, Managing Cattle Entering the Feedlot, Managing the Feedlot Environment, Managing Feedlot Pharmaceuticals, Managing by Fact: Generating and Interpreting Feedlot Information.
23 specialized seminars were also successfully organized on health and production management.
The proceedings of this Congress  (3 volumes with a total of 1097 pages) can be ordered from Dr H.E. Amstutz, Box 2319, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906, U.S.A.,
Phone : 1-317-494-8560;  Fax : 1-317-494-9353.

C. General Assembly of the World Association for Buiatrics (WAB)

During the WAB Board Meeting and the WAB General Assembly, the following developments were discussed and approved.

C.1.Statement of account from August 1, 1990 to August 1, 1992  (in Belgian Franks)

-) Balance on   August 1, 1990	+296.757
-)Receipts : Salvador Congress	159.525
Sponsoring Duphar-Solvay	200.000
Bank interest	12.550
	372.075

 

Total receipts : -)Expenses : Secretary costs (phone, fax, postage, copies, letters, etc ...	202.000
W.V.A. directory	1.972
Purchase of materials (printer laserwriter)	112.000
Total expenses :	315.860
-) Balance on August 1, 1992	+ 352.860

 

C.2.Application of new Associations to the W.A.B.

-) Association for Buiatrics of Slovenia
President: Dr I. Jazbec, Biotechnical Faculty, Veterinary Sciences Department, POB 25, 61000 Ljubljana, Fax : 38-61-33308.
-) Egyptian Society for Buiatrics
President: Dr S. El Amrousi, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Assiut University, SA-Assiut,

Fax : 20-88-322564.                                                                                                          
-) Asociacion Nacional de Especialistas en Medicina bovina de Espana
President: Dr A. Monge Vega, Facultad de Veterinaria, Ciudat Universitaria, E-28040 Madrid,

Fax : 34-1-3 943 807.
-) Association Nationale des Veterinaires du Maroc
President: Dr M'Hamed Sedrati, 5, rue Dait Roumi Agdal, Rabat, Maroc.

C.3.Application of new contact persons

-) Dr S. Misra (India)
-) Dr B. Pehrson (Sweden)
-) Dr S. Waage (Norway)
-) Dr N. Williamson (New Zealand)

C.4. Nomination of new board members.

In replacement of Drs Berchtold, Dubois, Cakala and Coubrough, the following persons were nominated : Dr W. Baumgartner (Austria), Dr. R. Eddy (U.K.), Dr S. El Amrousi (Egypt), Dr K. Hamana (Japan), Dr K. Leslie (Canada), Dr. B. Rheinberger (Australia), Dr A. Rosenbom (Denmark), Dr 0. Szenci (Hungary), Dr. R. Ugarte (Uruguay) (Vice-President-Elect)

C.5. Nominations of Honorary Members

-) Dr R. Dubois (Brazil) was nominated Honorary Vice-President.
-) Drs S. Cakala (Poland), R. Coubrough (S. Africa), C. Dirksen ( Germany) and E. Williams (U.S.A.) were nominated Honorary Members.

C.6.  Proposal of Sydney ( Australia) for the venue of the 18th World Buiatrics Congress in 1998.

The final decision will be taken during the 1994 W.A.B. General Assembly in Bologna, Italy. Information may be obtained from Dr. B. Rheinberger

C.7. Bylaws revision.

Bylaws of the W.A.B. will be discussed and revised during the 1994 General Assembly

D. Gustave Rosenberger Memorial Award

The 1992 Gustave Rosenberger Award was presented to Dr H.E. Amstutz. This Award has been invested by the group "Geneeskunde van het rund" within The Dutch Veterinary Association in 1982, after the World Buiatrics Congress held in Amsterdam. Its aim is to keep alive the memory of one of the W.A.B.'s founders, Prof. Dr h.c. Mult Gustav
Rosenberger, from the Hannover Veterinary School. The members of the G.R.M.-Fund's board decided to transmit its 1992 award, i.e. a marvellous printed picture showing a traditional Dutch cow barn, to Dr Amstutz in acknowledgement of his longstanding and outstanding achievements in the field of Buiatrics. He has been in private practice from 1946 to 1947, instructor, assistant and associate professor in veterinary medicine at Ohio State University until 1957, since then to 1989, professor at Purdue University, where he was responsible for the department of Veterinary Medicine, the Large Animal Teaching Hospital, and finally, the Large Animal Section. He is author and co-author of many renowned scientific contributions and of excitement textbooks on Cattle Diseases. Furthermore, he was actively promoting continuous education  of veterinarians engaged in cattle practice; he was secretary, executive secretary and is actually executive vice ­president of the American Association for Bovine Practitioners. He was the president of the World Association for Buiatrics from 1966 to 1984. The audience vividly expressed its appreciation to the highly esteemed awardee.

E. Pfizer Award

The winner of the 1992 Pfizer Award for outstanding contribution to the advancement of knowledge in the origin and treatment  of bovine diseases caused by micro organisms is Dr Joe Brownlie who is Principle Veterinary Research Officer at the Institute for Animal Health in Compton, United Kingdom. Selection of the award recipient was made by the board of directors of the World Association for Buiatrics which was helped by  international specialist referees.
Since 1946, when the Cornell workers first described a viral diarrhea of cattle, mucosal disease has remained one of the great enigmas of veterinary science. This lethal, sometimes devastating, infection of cattle presented one of the most difficult problems for veterinary diagnosis. The major breakthrough in our understanding came in 1984, when Dr Joe Brownlie published his work on the experimental reproduction of mucosal disease. In his work, he reported on a number of field outbreaks and dissected the clinical, virological and immunological basis for the disease. He was able to propose a hypothesis which he subsequently tested and proved to be correct. Since that time, others have confirmed his work.
Dr Brownlie has continued his pioneering studies and shown further that, although both biotypes of bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) virus are intimately associated with the production of mucosal disease, the BVD virus biotypes have different biological roles. He has shown the unique association of the noncytopathogenic biotype with persistent viraemia which contrasts to the failure of the cytopathogenic virus to infect the fetus. He has then continued his work to show the exquisite precision of the tolerance to the persisting virus and the ability of the tolerised immune system to recognize other "heterologous" BVD isolates. His group was the first to show the expression of the 80 K protein in the cytopathogenic viruses and this has been part of the basis for the molecular understanding of the two biotypes. In 1989, he was the first to report at a meeting in Liege, the incorporation of host ubiquitin into the pestivirus genome. His work is now directed at both the pathogenesis of this disease and the impact of the virus on the early fetus.
The natural development of this research has lead Joe Brownlie to develop a vaccine to protect cattle against BVD virus. The vaccine, currently under commercial development has shown good protection for the calf against BVD virus challenge. It is being further examined for its ability to protect against in utero infection.

F. 18th World Buiatrics Congress

Dr G. Gentile, and the Board of Directors of the Italian Association for Buiatrics are proceeding with preliminary advance planning of the World Buiatrics Congress scheduled in Italy in 1994
Place: Bologna, Italy
Date: August 29- September 2, 1994
Information: Dr. G. Gentile, Clinica Medicina Veterinaria, Via Tolara di Sopra, 30, I-40064
Ozzano Emilia ( BO), Italy, Phone: 39-51-794112   Fax: 39-51-794101

G. 19th World Buiatrics Congress

The 1996 World Buiatrics Congress will be held in Edinburgh, U.K. on July 8-12, 1996. Information must be requested from Dr C. Watson, Honorary Secretary of the British Cattle Veterinary Association, Framilode House, Framilode, Gloucester GL 2 7 LH, United Kingdom, Fax. : 44-452-330482.

H. Further information

Any further information may be obtained from the  W.A.B. Secretariat c/o P. Lekeux
Université de Liége, Faculté de Medecine Veterinaire, Bât. B 42, Sart Tilman, B-4000 Liége,
Belgium.  Phone : 32-41-564030   Fax : 32-41-562935