Nearly 200 participants - scientists, postgraduates, students, farmers and representatives of relevant institutions gathered at a seminar on "New technologies in dairy cattle breeding - the US experience", which was organized by Trakia University - Stara Zagora and the US Department of Agriculture, supported by US partners.

The speakers at the prestigious forum were Todor Arbov and Paulo Carvalho, whose enviable practical and scientific American experience was of extremely high interest, especially in shifting the focus from phenotype to genotype.

The workshop focused on the latest U.S. dairy cattle technologies that are leading to consistently high milk yields and dairy farm profitability. Topics included genetics and reproduction economics, dairy cattle selection and breeding management, genomic evaluation, genotyping, sexed material, marker-based herd plans, hormone programs, and other industry topics.

The Rector of Trakia University - Stara Zagora prof. "It is an honour and a privilege to restart good practices with our American friends from the US Department of Agriculture. Dear guests, Thrace University is also your home when you need our expertise, because our greatest strength is in agricultural specialties and veterinary medicine, we are leading, first of all in these professional fields. I am glad to see here today speakers of such a high level, among them a staff member of the University of Thrace - Todor Arbov. I wish everyone a fruitful and successful seminar."

The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, the Executive Agency for Selection and Reproduction in Livestock, breeding organizations and experts.

Briefly about the speakers:

Todor Arbov, MSc graduated in Zooengineering in Stara Zagora. He worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Reproduction Biology and Artificial Insemination at the University of Thrace. Since 1989 he lives and works abroad - Denmark, Germany, Canada, USA - in the field of genetics and reproduction in cattle breeding. He is a long time member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Farm Animal Genetics. He is currently the STgenetics representative for Eastern Europe, and the company is a global leader in sexed semen production and genomic evaluation in the cattle industry.

Пауло Карвальо, PhD, е от Португалия и има бакалавърска степен по зооинженерство оттам. Работил е в Португалия като техник по изкуствено осеменяване на държавна служба.

In 2010 he went to the USA, to the University of Madison, Wisconsin, from where he got his MS and PhD in dairy cattle reproduction. He also has a post-doctoral degree in management and economics of reproduction in dairy cattle production. He is currently completing another post doctoral qualification in genetics. He has 35 scientific publications on reproduction in dairy cattle, 59 conference poster presentations and one book chapter on dairy cattle reproduction.

He is currently a consultant in genetics and reproduction in Europe and the Middle East.