More than 1,000 vets and speakers attended the 20th International Congress ANEMBE of Bovine Medicine, Europe’s most important forum in this regard, held in Burgos from 6-8 May.
Promoting the quality of beef and cow’s milk in the province of Burgos and the region does not only depend on the good work of stockmen and the processing industries.
During the congress, held at the Forum Evolucion Burgos, debate revolved around burning issues and the problems faced by livestock farmers, with streams dedicated to medicine and surgery, sanitation, handling and feeding, genomics, reproduction and milk quality, chiropody, fattening, and the milk market.
For the Burgos Convention Bureau it is vitally important for the city to host major events such as this one. During his speech, the Mayor of Burgos encouraged the delegates to get to know the city, including its cuisine, monuments, and the Atapuerca sites – in short, to experience and discover a friendly, modern and historical city.
Emphasis was placed on the importance of the beef and milk industries in Castile and Leon, with 81 milk processing plants, generating 24,000 direct jobs and contributing €327 million to the GDP of the region, which occupies one of the top positions in the national ranking as regards production.
Juan Luis Arsuaga, scientific director of the Museum of Human Evolution (MEH), stressed that the "brilliant idea" of the English naturalist Charles Robert Darwin was that "evolution in nature should be a process fairly similar to that of animal breeds, with the selection carried out by livestock farmers which has produced such a large variety of breeds." A Darwinian theory based on the analogy between domestic animal breeds and nature, and which was the focus of the keynote address that he delivered at Forum Evolucion, entitled "What cows told Darwin (which was a lot and highly important)."
Burgos becomes the European capital of the beef industry
