A Focus on Udder Health
Seventeen experts from seven European countries attended the two-day meeting in April 2010 hosted by the French EMP-team, Luc Durel, Francis Sérieys and Nathalie Bareille, all experts in udder health in France.
According to the group, the biggest challenges currently facing the European dairy industry are the decrease of up to 25 percent in the price of milk in the last two years, the future removal of the milk quota system in 2015 and the change of structure in dairy farms. The EMP states that effective and economic solutions must be implemented to help deal with these challenges.
"There is not an unique European answer to the challenges in dairy business, but we can learn a lot from each other. That's why we gathered at this meeting", commented Jantijn Swinkels, DVM and Global Technical Director of Ruminants at Intervet/ Schering-Plough Animal Health, who organizes the meeting every year in a different European country.
The European Mastitis Panel has become a dedicated, well established group of mastitis experts and an important platform for discussion and networking in Europe. "Every year I listen, talk and discuss with my European colleagues", one EMP-member pointed out, "Some ideas seem to be very traditional, others very innovative. In any case I take something home. This year it is the advancement of cooperation in my country."
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