WAHO Conference
Warsaw, Poland
August 8 – 12, 2004
Submitted
by: Lorry Wagner
Delegate, PAHR
August 24, 2004
My husband Larry and I
arrived in Warsaw the morning of August 7 after flying and waiting
between plane changes for a total of 17 hours. We had met Linda
Bye, Owner and Registrar for PAHR (Purebred Arabian Horse Registry)
in Chicago and flew from there straight through to Warsaw on the
same plane. We were all exhausted by then, so, after finding the
WAHO office and picking up our packets and goodie bags, we went to
our rooms and rested.
Warsaw is a very
old city. However, World War II bombing leveled between 80 and 90
per cent of the city. The Polish people worked very hard giving of
their time to rebuild most of the city’s old landmark buildings to
their original appearance. Very few of these historical palaces,
etc., escaped damage or total destruction. One of these buildings
we visited which did escape was the “Palace on the Water” located at
the lovely Lazienki Park in Warsaw.
(l.) Palace on the Water located in
Lazienki Park, Warsaw Poland
This palace looked out over the water (r.)
SUNDAY arrived bright and
early and we were ready to go. We met new and old friends and
chatted and spent a relaxing day. I had a meeting with the WAHO EC
late that afternoon and that was the only business of the day for
me. Larry wandered out and about and found some delightful
restaurants within walking distance of the hotel. That evening,
Linda, Larry and I dined at a Turkish Restaurant, sitting out in
front in the open air area next to the sidewalk. The food was
delicious and the people were friendly.
Linda Bye, Owner and Registrar of PAHR
Monday
brought the Registrars’ Meeting. This is the meeting that is the highlight of the Conference for me. The Registrars of all Member
Registries in attendance sit down at a big table and discuss and try
to solve problems that arise between countries when exchanging
Arabian horses for sale, racing, shows, or whatever other reasons.
It is amazing to realize that laws differ between many countries and
compromises must be made that are within the law of all countries.
This meeting was Co-Chaired by James Carine of England and Xavier
Guibert of France, both previous Registrars of their respective
countries. Linda Bye, owner and Registrar of PAHR (pictured above)
sat at the table for the U.S. and I, as second delegate for
PAHR, was a very interested observer. Following are the highlights
of that meeting.
Foal
Registration: James Carine reiterated that all foals must be
parentage verified by DNA, starting with the 2005 foal crop.
Registrars were requested to report the DNA testing method they will
use and supply the full address of the ISAG laboratory they use.
Since not all countries have changed to DNA to date, it was
requested that the exporting/importing Registries accommodate DNA or
blood typing when they differ. Laboratories are to be in control
during this period of change over.
Microchipping of
horses: A very in-depth description of how this impacts
registration was given by Xavier Guibert. An excellent slide
presentation accompanied his talk. Some countries have adopted this
procedure. There are still some problems to be worked out, such as
requiring the chip always be placed in the same place from country
to country, the problem of some horses carrying 2 chips, etc., etc.
It is “fairly” commonly agreed that the best placement area for a
chip is on the left side of the neck just under the mane in the
middle area. It was pointed out that in order for this program to
be effective and meaningful, it does need good management.
Currently, the
countries adopting microchipping are Belize, France, Germany, Iran,
Libya, Morocco, Netherlands, Qatar, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates.
Reader standards are
numbers in sequence as follows: Country, species, registration
number. These identifying numbers put in this sequence comprise the
microchip number.
It was reiterated
that this will never replace registration papers or parentage
verification, but is a facilitating help to these areas. It was
suggested that WAHO publish a list of Reader Companies around the
world, since standard chips/readers are also a necessity for this to
work.
Horses in
Transit: Following the last Conference, WAHO issued the new
guidance leaflet. Discussion ensued regarding whether or not these
guidelines are working. It was reiterated that registries must
comply with the laws of their individual countries, but there have
been suggestions that some registries are ignoring the WAHO
guidance. WAHO is working on having a passport issued at birth to
be accepted by competition authorities.
Practical
problems in the change-over from bloodtyping to DNA and mandatory
parentage verification from 2005—general discussion: Since a few
countries have yet to change to DNA it was requested that when
exporting/importing the two registries involved be sure to
accommodate the situation if both do not use DNA. The Laboratories
will be in control during this period of change.
Embryo Transfer
(ET): The question of “who” would be the recorded breeder in
the case where there is one owner of the mare covered and another
owner of the surrogate mare came up. It was suggested that both
owners make an agreement as to who would be the recorded breeder at
the beginning of the arrangement. Ordinarily it would be the
genetic mare’s owner unless such an agreement is made with the
surrogate mare.
Correct Use of
WAHO Semen Collection and Insemination Report forms: Some
registries reported difficulties with the distribution of these
forms, thus instructions were reiterated.
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