History

The 2^nd World Buffalo Congress took place on December 12-16, 1988, in New Delhi, India, with President Dr. R.M. Acharya and Prof. V.D. Mudgal as General Secretary.

The 3^rd World Buffalo Congress took place on May 13-17, 1991, in Varna, Bulgaria, with President Prof. Dr. Tzeno Hinkovski and Prof. Dr. Aleko Alexiev as General Secretary; 10 volumes of Proceedings were published in addition to a special report of the FAO Workshop on Biotechnology of Reproduction, which was the first link between FAO and IBF, and which would prove to be the foundation of the FAO Inter-Regional Cooperative Research Network on Buffalo.

The 4^th World Buffalo Congress took place on June 27-30, 1994, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with President Prof. Manoel Osorio Luzardo de Almeida and Joao Ghasper de Almeida as General Secretary. Three Proceedings volumes were published. During this congress, the Italian scientist Prof. Giovanni de Franciscis was elected president of IBF. The president De Franciscis organized the 8^th Standing Committee Meeting of the IBF in Rome on 2 April 1996, where the transfer of the Secretariat to the Istituto Sperimentale per la Zootecnia (Animal Production Research Institute) in Monterotondo, Rome, Italy, was decided.

The 5^th World Buffalo Congress took place on October 13-18, 1997, in Caserta, Italy, with President Prof. Giovanni de Franciscis and Prof. Antonio Borghese as Scientific Secretary. For the first time each paper to be communicated to the Congress was submitted for revision to two referees scientist from the specific field of competence; 189 papers were published in the Proceedings, a book of 990 pages, that was distributed before the Congress and represented the state of art in buffalo sciences for many years. At this congress, the famous Venezuelan buffalo breeder Mr. Pablo Moser Guera was elected the new president of IBF. It was decided that the 6^th World Buffalo Congress would be held in Venezuela in the year 2000 and the 7^th WBC in the Philippines changing each time (3 years) Continent and the new president who will organize the Congress.

The 6^th World Buffalo Congress took place in Maracaibo (Venezuela) on May 21-23, 2001 and it produced the first electronic edition of the proceedings in CD. During the business meeting of IBF, prof. Antonio Borghese gave a report of the previous congress, that had realized a profit of 4,300 US$, which had subsequently been transferred to the next congress, and suggested establishing  closer relations with FAO Buffalo Network. The Standing Committee agreed to establish the Secretariat in Rome at the Istituto Sperimentale per la Zootecnia and Antonio Borghese was appointed as General Secretary to be assisted by two Executive Officers: Aleko Alexiev and Hugh Popenoe. The next meeting was to be conducted in the Philippines with Libertado Cruz as President assisted by two Vice-Presidents: S.K. Ranjhan and Jesus Reggeti. In 1992 the Asian Buffalo Association (ABA), under the IBF umbrella, was established with the Presidency of Dr. P.N. Bhat (India). The First Asian Buffalo Congress (ABC), organized by ABA, was held in Bangkok, Thailand on 1994, January 17-21; the 2^nd ABC was held in Makati, Philippines, on 1996, October 9-12; the 3^rd ABC was held in Kandy, Sri Lanka, on 2000, March 27-31; the 4^th ABC was held in New Delhi, India, on 2003, February 25-28. There is an agreement between IBF and ABA to organize the respective congresses in different years. There is an agreement between IBF and ABA to organize the respective congresses in different years. An IBF Council Meeting took place at the Congress Palace in Rome on 30 August 2003, organized by the General Secretary, Prof. Antonio Borghese. The President Libertado Cruz, M. Zava from Argentina, W. Vale and J.G. de Almeida from Brazil, L. Zicarelli and R. Garofalo from Italy, H. Popenoe from USA, M. Larbier from FAO, A. Barkawi from Egypt, O. Sekerden from Turkey, Ruzbehean from Iran attended the meeting. The President Libertado Cruz thanked the organizer and recalled the Scientist Aleko Alexiev who had passed away. He then distributed the programme of the next Congress, to be held in Manila, from 20 to 23 October 2004. Gaspar de Almeida underlined the difficulties for Cuba to organize the next Congress following that to be held in Manila. Prof. Borghese proposed the creation of a continuous link with the FAO Buffalo Network in order to locate researchers, exchange information, organize the congresses, and publish the Buffalo Newsletter with FAO and IBF sponsors and logos, distributing 1.200 copies free of charge worldwide and to promote TCP (Technical Cooperation Projects) in developing countries. In order to arrange for the legal Registration of the IBF in Rome and to create a website for the IBF, a contribution of 100 US$ was suggested from each member.

The 7^th World Buffalo Congress took place in Manila (Philippines) on October 20-23, 2004 organized by the International Buffalo Federation (IBF), the Philippines Society of Animal Science, the Philippines Carabao Center, and the Department of Agriculture. A book of proceedings with 172 papers (864 pages) was produced (as book and as CD) plus another book with 31 invited mean speakers (251 pages), that represent the state of art in the research in all the buffalo fields (animal health, breeding and genetics, meat and milk production, nutrition, physiology, reproduction, socio-economic). During this Congress the IBF Assembly Meeting took place at the Makati-la Hotel in Manila. The President of the IBF, Dr. Libertado C. Cruz, opened the meeting and thanked all delegates from sixteen countries. The President recalled Prof. Aleko Alexiev, who had been Diretor of the Buffalo Research Institute in Shumen, Bulgaria, and President of the Bulgarian Buffalo Breeaders Association, and remembered also Giovanni de Franciscis, Professor at Naples University (Italy), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, who had founded the School of Buffalo Sciences in Italy and had been the first President of the Italian Buffalo Breeders Association; he has also been involved with the IBF since its establishment and had been elected President in San Paolo, Brazil (1994), and organized the Fifth World Buffalo Congress in Caserta, Italy, from 13 to 16 October 1997. He had passed away a few months earlier. Following this, all delegates introduced themselves: A. Borghese (General Secretary), L. Zicarelli, A. Coletta, F. Infascelli, G.M. Terzano and V.L. Barile from Italy; S. Ranhjan and O.P. Dhanda from India; H. Popenoe and Thomas Olson from the USA; M. Zava from Argentina; I. Soliman from Egypt; B. Lemcke from Australia; T. Peeva and M. Alexieva from Bulgaria; G. de Almeida, M. Almeida and W. Vale from Brazil; M. Elsami from Iran; N. Ahmad from Pakistan; L.C. Cruz (President) and A. del Barrio from Philippines; T. Sereninhe from Sri Lanka; M. Wanapat from Thailand; O. Sekerden from Turkey; J. Reggeti from Venezuela; Mai Van Sanh from Vietnam. During this important meeting were the following topics: 1) IBF Constitution. The General Secretary of the IBF, Prof. Antonio Borghese, submitted for confirmation by the Assembly, the Legal Act of the IBF Constitution, registered in Monterotondo, Rome, on 11 October 2004, by the legal notary Dr. Francesco Di Pietro, together with Antonio Borghese, Raffaele Garofalo, Luigi Zicarelli, Giuseppina Maria Terzano and Vittoria Lucia Barile; with this Legal Act, the legal address of IBF is the same as that of the General Secretariat, with a permanent office in the Animal Production Research Institute (Istituto Sperimentale per la Zootecnia) via Salaria 31, 00015 Monterotondo, Rome, Italy). The Constitution and By-laws are the same as those approved in Caserta on 16 October 1997, with the formal modifications proposed by President Libertado C. Cruz, and published in the Buffalo Newsletter, Number 20, dated September 2004, printed in 1.200 copies for worldwide distribution. The organization contained in the Legal Act is the same as that approved in Maracaibo, Venezuela, from 21 to 23 May 2001, and published in the same issue of the Buffalo Newsletter. The IBF Subscription is set at a minimum of US$ 100, for the years 2004 to 2007, for the functionality of the IBF, there was a need for a Secretariat Office, an economic foundation, but specifically a real act of adhesion to the IBF by members. Many participants agreed with the General Secretary’s position. 2) Appreciationes. Many participants expressed their appreciation for the reformatted IBF Constitution, as proposed by the President Libertado C. Cruz, and published in the Buffalo Newsletter, and congratulated the President on the excellent Congress organized in the Philippines, which had been an important success for the scientific community and for the buffalo breeders in the world. 3) Next Congress and President. With regard to the next World Buffalo Congress in the 2007, many people expressed their views (Cruz, Ranjhan, Vale and Zava) and the past willingness of Cuba and China to organize the Congress was reported. However, this proposed readiness was not confirmed by the presence of the respective representatives at the IBF Assembly, even if clearly invited. Prof. Borghese proposed to change the Continent, as traditionally undertaken in the past: in the 2001 the Congress had taken plase in America, this year in Asia, the next would be in Europe and therefore he proposed Prof. Luigi Zicarelli as President. All the delegates voted for Italy, appreciating the past experiences in organizing congresses and the link with FAO (Peeva, Dhanda, de Almeida, Vale, Zava, Reggeti) and the economic possibilities. Prof. Zicarelli thanked the delegates for the honor and declared his satisfaction to take up legacy of his teacher Giovanni de Franciscis, requesting the assistance of the Italian Breeders Association, of the Agricultural Ministry, of Prof. Borghese’s Institute and of the other Italian organizations.

The 5^th Asian Buffalo Congress was organized on 18-22 April, 2006 in Nanningh, China by Prof. Yang Bingzhuang, President of the Asian Buffalo Association (ABA) and Director of the Buffalo Research Institute in Nanningh, Guangxi Autonomous Region. Another Association was born from the IBF and under the umbrella of the FAO-ESCORENA Buffalo Network in Monterotondo, Rome, Italy, on 2003: the Europe-America Scientific Association on Buffalo (EASBA), who organized the First Buffalo Symposium of Europe and the Americas in Capaccio-Paestum, Salerno, Italy, on 12-15 October 2005, with Prof. Luigi Zicarelli as President. In this Symposium 5 invited lectures, 125 papers subdivided in 8 session were presented; 23 Italian Institutes and 16 American ones attended.

The 2^nd Buffalo Symposium on Europe-America (3^th Symposium on buffaloes of Americas) was held in Medellin, Colombia, form 6 to 8 September 2006, organized by the Colombia Buffalo Association, with Ing. Ricardo Botero as President and Dr. Claudia P. Roldan de Sierra as Vice-president. 700 people took part coming from different countries. The Proceedings book, with different chapters in 263 pages, was given to the congress people. During this Symposium the IBF meeting was held with the presence of many delegates of different countries. The President Prof. Luigi Zicarelli showed a preliminary program of the 8^th World Buffalo Congress and asked help and suggests to the colleagues. It was established that the 4^th Symposium on Buffaloes of Americas will be held in Venezuela on October 2008, and that the Argentina confirmed the candidature for the 9^th World Buffalo Congress on 2010.

The 8^th World Buffalo Congress took place in Caserta (Italy) on 2007 on October 19-21 with Prof. Luigi Zicarelli as President. A complete state of art of the research in Buffalo species was produced in the 1450 pages of the Congress Proceedings, published by the Italian Journal of Animal Science. There was the very intensive participation of more than 400 people coming from 39 Countries. During the Congress, the IBF meeting was held with the participation of representative members coming from 19 Countries. There were the following representative members: Marco Zava, Armando Rozemblum, John Nelson from Argentina; Barry Lemcke from Australia; Samad Khan, representing  Omar Faruque from Bangladesh; Joao Ghaspar de Almeida, William G. Vale from Brazil; Tzonka Peeva from Bulgaria; Alfonso Bernal, J.A. Berdugo, Ricardo Botero from Colombia; S. Ranjhan from India; Moossa Eslami, R. Pirmohammadi, Hamid Naderfard from Iran; L. Zcarelli (the President), R. Garofalo, A. Fagiolo, L. Iannuzzi, A. Coletta, G.M. Terzano; V.L. Barile, M. Mazzi, A. Casali, F. Infascelli from Italy; Talat Naseer Pasha, Nasir Hussain Shah from Pakistan; Libertado C. Cruz from Philippines; Metha Wanapat from Thailand; Ozel Sekerden from Turkey; Lillawatti Rastogi, Floyd Necles from Trinidad; Bob Palmer from UK; Hugh Popenoe, Thomas Olson from USA; Jesus Reggeti, Hector Scannone from Venezuela; Mai Van Sanh from Vietnam. The General Secretary Prof. Antonio Borghese gave the list of the members, composed of 58 representative members of 23 Countries. The following candidates were proposed, voted and included in the list: Federico Romero for Argentina, Santosh Thomas and Aditya Misra for India, Safdan Ali Sial for Pakistan, Rangsun Parnpai for Thailand, Giuseppe Campanile for Italy. The Buffalo Newsletter shows the logo of FAO and of IBF, linking two important Institutions, but need also financial support. The General Secretary Prof. Antonio Borghese is confirmed the Editor of the Buffalo Newsletter, and is published in 1600 copies, which is sent free of charge to people or Institutions interested to the developing of buffalo in the world. About the organization of the 9^th World Buffalo Congress for 2010, Argentina presented his candidature by his representative member Marco Zava, who showed documents of interesting and engagements by following Istitutions: Asociacion Argentina de Criadores de Bufalos; Ministerio de la Producciòn de la Provincia de Formosa; Governador Provincia de Corrientes; Secreteria de Agricoltura, Ganaderia, Pesca y Alimentos in Buenos Aires; Ministerio de Economia y Producciòn in Buenos Aires; Universidad Nacional de Nordeste and Universidad Nacional de Formosa. Thailand too presented his candidature to host the 9^th World Buffalo Congress, by his delegate Rangsun Parnpai, but, after a vivacious discussion, Rangsun Parnpai, renounced in favour of Argentina, asking to host the next Congress in 2013. Therefore Argentina was elected with unanimous vote as the Country organizing the 9^th World Buffalo Congress. Marco Zava proposed as IBF President Federico Romero, the President of the Argentina Buffalo Breeders Association. Federico Romero was elected President of IBF for the period 2007-2010. Jesus Reggeti proposed Ricardo Botero as Vice-president for America in place of Marco Zava and Ricardo was elected. The dates of other congresses were established to avoid the coincidence with the World Buffalo Congress: the third Buffalo Symposium of Europe and the Americas will be held in Venezuela on October 2008, the 6th Asian Buffalo Congress will be held in Lahore, Pakistan on October 27-30, 2009 by the President of Asian Buffalo Association, Talat Naseer Pasha. . Libertado C. Cruz handed the flag of the IBF to the Italian delegation for the next Congress with the wishes for the success and the development of the buffalo species in the World.  This year the World Buffalo Congress was held in Caserta (Italy) for the second time in the history, with the publishing of the proceedings in 1450 pages on the Italian Journal of Animal Science.

The 9^th World Buffalo Congress, was held in Buenos Aires (Argentina) on April, 25-28, 2010 by the President Eng. Federico Romero, elected in Caserta, Italy, during the IBF meeting on 2007. President of the Scientific Committee was Prof. Gustavo Crudeli, President of the Organizing Committee was Eng. Marco Zava. An exceptional assistance was achieved: nearly 500 persons coming from 30 countries of the 5 continents: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Guatemala, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Thailand, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. 260 full papers were presented, including scientific, technical and productive presentations of excellent level. The facilities of the Panamericano Hotel were spectacular. In 5 Plenary Sessions and in 11 Simultaneous Sessions were presented papers referred to: Situation of the Buffalo in Regions of the World, Production Systems, Buffaloes for Draught, Hide, Genetics, Social and Economic Development, Reproduction, Anatomy and Physiology, Nutrition and Feeding, Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Meat Production, Milk Production, Economy and Markets, Managements in Dairy and Livestock Herds, Clinical and Animal Welfare. During this WBC was also held the International Buffalo Federation meeting (April 26, 2010); the President Eng. Federico Romero welcomed all the IBF delegates and reported the different running activities about the 9th World Buffalo Congress, that was a success for number of participants, represented countries, quality of lectures and papers, that produced a Proceedings book of 1102 pages, published on Revista Veterinaria, Faculdad de Ciencias Veterinaria, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Corrientes, Argentina, Vol. 21, 2010, suppl.1, edited by Gustavo A. Crudeli, Exequiel M. Patino and José L. Konrad. The General Secretary Prof. Antonio Borghese distributed the IBF list and the order of the meeting: 1) IBF activities; 2) Economic balance. The input is coming only from the delegates fees (100 US$ paid every 3 years) and from FAO. The new IBF list will be composed accordingly with delegates who paid the fees. The output is coming particularly from the cost of the Buffalo Newsletter, very useful for changing information and sending news about buffaloes, but very expensive for printing and expedition cost. Libertado Cruz proposed to ask high fees (1000 US$ or more) to the official Buffalo Institutes and to the Companies working in buffalo, to increase the input. All the delegates approved, encouraging each other to find Institutes and Companies as IBF delegates. 3) Buffalo Newsletter. The Buffalo Newsletter edited by Antonio Borghese with FAO and IBF logos is a referent point of our activity: in 2009 was published the number 24, sent in 1600 copies, free of charge, to all the people working in buffalo field in many countries,   but it is too expensive. So the proposition to continue the Buffalo Newsletter production, but only in electronic version was voted by the delegates. 4) The Secretary Antonio Borghese showed the possibility to involve IBF in research projects: one proposition was presented to the Milano Expo 2015 named “The great farm” with the expo of draught animals (buffaloes too)  in the world to produce work and food in the villages; the second project was presented by prof. Leopoldo Iannuzzi with the Italian Buffalo Breeders Association (ANASB) on the possibility to create a reference genome sequence and information on genetic variations of the buffalo species. All the delegates were favourable to these developing activities of IBF. 5) The Secretary Antonio Borghese informed that FAO-ESCORENA organization, that moved the headquarter of the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia   from Rome to Budapest and that includes all the FAO  Networks, as buffalo too, organized in Budapest on March 9-11, 2010 the Regional Workshop on the “Development of Thematic Knowledge Networks” in the framework of “Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development” (CIARD), where Prof. Borghese was invited as Coordinator of  the Inter-Regional Cooperative Research Buffalo Network. The “agrowebcee.net” portal was created as a basis for the management of knowledge. Now in the website www.agrowebcee.net in ESCORENA Buffalo Network is possible to find a lot of news about buffalo and about IBF. 6) Election of the President 2010-2013 and of the country of the next World Buffalo Congress. At this point Prof. Borghese remembered as 3 years ago, during the IBF meeting in Caserta, Argentina by Marco Zava and Thailand by Rangsun Parnpai presented their candidatures to host the 9th World Buffalo Congress. At the moment of vote, Rangsun Parnpai renounced to his candidature and decided to support the Argentina proposal, requiring support from all the countries to held the 10th World Buffalo Congress in Thailand in 2013, to avoid the vote that could provoke a division between Asian and American delegates. Therefore the Secretary proposed Prof. Rangsun Parnpai as IBF President for the period 2010-2013. The assembly elected Prof. Rangsun Parnpai as President with unanimous vote. The new President thanked the delegates and said, as he was elected also President of the Asian Buffalo Association (ABA) during the last Asian Buffalo Congress in Lahore (October 29, 2009), that he will organize the 7^th Asian Buffalo Congress together with the 10th World Buffalo Congress in Phuket, Thailand on May 2013. For the first time in the history of IBF and ABA the two congresses will be unified. This beautiful notice and the enthusiasm of the President Parnpai provoked a great applause and the congratulations of all the delegates. The dates of other congresses were established to avoid the coincidence with the World Buffalo Congress: the third Buffalo Symposium of Europe and the Americas will be held in Venezuela on October 2008, the 6^th Asian Buffalo Congress will be held in Lahore, Pakistan on October 27-30, 2009 by the  President of Asian Buffalo Association, Talat Naseer Pasha. The time of other International Congresses were established to avoid the coincidence with the World Buffalo Congress: the 3^rd Buffalo Symposium of Europe and the Americas on October 2008 in Venezuela; the 6^th Asian Buffalo Congress on October 2009 in Lahore, Pakistan.

The 10^th World Buffalo Congress and the 7^th Asian Buffalo Congress  took place in Phuket (Thailand) on May 6-8, 2013 by the President Prof. Rangsun Parnpai and Prof. Antonio Borghese as General Secretary.

After the opening ceremony with the greetings and welcome by the Thailand Authorities, Prof. Dr. Prasart Suebka, Rector of the Suranaree University of Technology, opened the congress with the theme “Green Production against Global Warming”. The President of the International Buffalo Federation (IBF) and of the Asian Buffalo Association (ABA), and Chair of the Organizing Committee, Prof. Rangsun Parnpai, welcomed all the people taking part to the congress (700 participant including scientist, buffalo practitioners from 44 countries) and introduced the lecture dedicated to Prof. Maneewan Kamompatana by K.H. Lu (China) on “Sperm sexing in buffalo using flow cytometry”. The program consisted of scientific and technical programs as well as social and cultural activities. The scientific and technical programs offered Pre-Congress Workshop, plenary sessions from world renowned invited speakers, 9 significant symposia, poster sessions and practitioner formu. More lectures were presented regarding to “Buffalo for Food security and Economy” by Libertado C. Cruz (Philippines), Antonio Borghese (Italy), Marco Zava (Argentina), while Kitti Koobkaew (Thailand) showed the Thailand Buffalo strategy Plan 2012-2016. Regarding to the session “Sustainable Buffalo Production” four lectures were presented by Talat N. Pasha (Pakistan), Bing-Zhuang Yang (China), William G. Vale (Brazil), Ibrahim Soliman (Egypt); while about the session “Biotechnological for Efficient Buffalo production” two lectures were presented: Biotechnological approaches for efficient buffalo production, by M.E. Babar (Pakistan), The buffalo genome and the application of genomics in animal management and improvement, by John Williams (Italy). During the symposia and other sessions, over 370 papers submitted to the congress from a number of organizations and by eminent scientists around the world were presented. All works have been published in two volumes of proceedings, both on paper and in electronic form.
During the Congress, the IBF Assembly Meeting was held. The IBF General Secretary, Prof. Antonio Borghese presented the economic balance of the Federation, that was approved, and the IBF activities during the period 2010-2012, as the publication of the reported books and of the Buffalo Newsletter n.25, 26, 27, the 9^th World Buffalo Congress in Buenos Aires (Argentina, April 25-28, 2010), the 5^th Buffalo Symposium for Europe and America in Havana (Cuba, November 22-23, 2011), and last but not at least, the participation to different projects: in Hungary to create a new experimental dairy buffalo farm, in Pakistan to support the humanitarian project “Buffaloes in Punjab”, in Bangladesh with an agreement with Lal Ter Seed Limited Company. Finally the IBF President Rangsun Parnpai invited the IBF delegates to present their candidature for the new President for the period 2013-2016, who will organize the 11^th World Buffalo Congress in 2016.
China, Turkey and Colombia presented their candidature. The IBF delegates voted, each one for each country, and Colombia was elected with Claudia P. Roldan as President. Turkey was elected for organize the Asian Buffalo Congress on 2015 with Prof. M. Ihsan Soysal as President of ABA.
From May 9 to 13 the Post-Congress tour was held visiting different farms: the Thai Buffalo Conservation and Development Center in Chonburi with beautiful Swamp bulls, the Murrah Farm in Chachoengsao for milk purposes, the Milking Buffalo Farm of the Department of Livestock Development in Buriram with Mehsana buffaloes and the World Buffalo show and competition in Suranaree University of Technology, where many champions, particularly from Thai Swamp, had been appreciated.