International Federation for Eurasier Breeding (IFEZ)

Short minutes of the 2019 IFEZ Conference 2019

Beat Kempf, President of Eurasierfreunde Schweiz (EFS), as the current President of the International Federation for Eurasier Breeding, greeted those present at the IFEZ meeting with a short statement on the fundamental intentions of IFEZ.

The first main part of the conference concerned information and questions about innovations and problems of IFEZ members:

• In a first round of discussions, the IFEZ clubs presented the changes in personnel in their committees. Even if in some cases there have been many changes, it is very positive to note that it has been possible to get younger people to adopt an active role in a Eurasier club.
• The questions and problems surrounding the membership of the Eurasier Society UK (ESUK) in IFEZ (now dormant for a year) were discussed and evaluated in detail. As the requirements of IFEZ have not been met for more than 12 months, a final reasonable period for fulfilling these obligations was decided by the full members of IFEZ. ESUK will be automatically excluded on the scheduled date if the multiple requirements have not been met by then.
• Since the English club "ESUK" did not fulfill its obligations as an IFEZ member by 20/11/2019, the IFEZ President Beat Kempf sent a notification to the club committee, dated 23/11/2019, that the Eurasier Society UK, following the vote of the IFEZ full members, is, with immediate effect, no longer a member of IFEZ and must stop advertising IFEZ in any communications or advertising.
• The new homepage of the IFEZ is almost finished and is very successful. After the latest revisions, it can be activated safely at the beginning of 2020.
• The conditions under which club officials could participate at meetings via Skype was discussed.
  A second main part of the conference was again devoted to a variety of topics about the Eurasier:
• The moderate changes in Standard 291 presented by EKW (in co-ordination with KZG and ZG) and approved by VDH, are again to be considered for approval by the FCI.
  Underactive thyroid is one of the autoimmune diseases that have a large hereditary component and develop gradually. Various thyroid values are tested in all clubs for as many animals as possible, but is mandatory for the breeding dogs. The problem of comparability of reference values from different laboratories was discussed. Not all clubs can use Biocontrol as a laboratory. An assessment of all previously recorded anonymized values is highly desirable.
• Other health issues addressed were:
• epilepsy and the problem of correct diagnosis and recording; ways to prevent the ‘popular sire’ syndrome IFEZ-wide; meaningful genetic tests; and state of genetic diversity in our breed.
• The discussion of all these topics was lively and engaging!
• Information was also exchanged about regulations such as different breeding fees and health deposits, and puppy prices were compared and discussed.
• From January 1st, 2020 the presidency of the IFEZ passes to the Eurasier Vereniging Nederland (EVN).

After working through the usual formalities, there were many interesting, exciting chats about Eurasiers during the evening of the meeting, as well as on the Friday evening and Sunday morning. This large, international group only meets in person once a year. Throughout the year, communication is usually only possible by phone or email. It was an all-round successful meeting for the good of our beautiful breed.

© Gisela Aach, IFEZ Secretary
Translation: Brigitte Mordan-Grimm

International Federation for Eurasier Breeding (IFEZ)

Vision

The well-attended IFEZ meetings over the last 26 years are testimony of the fact that IFEZ is a great organization of Eurasier clubs. The first generation of delegates (Chairpersons, Breeding Officials and Data Representatives) who had been there since its inception, are slowly retiring from the positions in their clubs and therefore as IFEZ delegates. New delegates are taking over.

The three most important pillars of IFEZ are now being modernized; they are:

- Database with a program to estimate breeding values.
- Agreements with IFEZ members.
- IFEZ homepage.

The database is being positioned in the Cloud and data are to be managed by the data representatives of the clubs directly. The database is having an additional character ‘epilepsy’; such additions will always be possible when needed.

The IFEZ agreements with clubs is being re-worked. It will be adapted to the present status of IFEZ.

The IFEZ homepages has had a complete overhaul and will be put live. We are of the opinion that this window to the outside world in particular will be able to represent IFEZ with its ideas as a modern organization for the good of our Eurasiers.

In the next few years we will work on some topics to secure the future of IFEZ, so that our Eurasiers will stay the way we value them:

Healthy, with a fine character, in various colours, and just a good family companion.

The next IFEZ meeting will be held on October 2021