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118^th CAFIB Fila Brasileiro National Exhibition

2^nd CAFIB Fila Brasileiro Exhibition in Caxambu, MG

The southern region of Minas Gerais, considered the historical Fila Brasileiro breed cradle, once again hosted a CAFIB event. In Serra da Mantiqueira mountains, Caxambu — home to the largest hydro-mineral spa in Brazil and the largest hydro-mineral complex in the world — held its 118th CAFIB Fila Brasileiro National Exhibition and 2nd CAFIB Fila Brasileiro Exhibition in Caxambu, on November 24 and 25, marking the conclusion of our 2024 Calendar.

Caxambu's springs, known for their medicinal and therapeutic properties, nicknamed “holy waters”, are mainly located among the huge trees of Parque das Águas Dr. Lisandro Carneiro Guimarães, a major tourist attraction in the city covering 210,000 m² and listed by Minas Gerais State Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (IEPHA). The Park also houses the Floriano de Lemos Geyser, whose sulphurous mineral waters are indicated for the cure of various skin and rheumatic diseases. Of the approximately 1,000 geysers worldwide, half are found in Yellowstone National Park, USA. This one in Caxambu is the only geyser in Brazil.  Strategically located between the borders of the states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro, the city is part of “Minas Gerais water circuit”, which also includes Baependi, Cambuquira, Campanha, Carmo de Minas, Conceição do Rio Verde, Heliodora, Lambari, Poços de Caldas, São Lourenço, and Soledade de Minas. Among them, Caxambu is the most famous, celebrated in prose and poetry by Ruy Barbosa and Olavo Bilac.

The great tourist movement in Caxambu was mainly due to the casinos within some hotels, which served as entertainment hubs with restaurants, bars, theaters, orchestras, and ballrooms, as well as generating many jobs. The taxes collected by these gambling houses represented the main city source of income and casino chips were even accepted as local currency. At that time, many Brazilian casinos were visited by international personalities such as Frank Sinatra, Walt Disney, and Albert Einstein, until 1946 when gambling was banned in the country under a decree signed by President Marechal Eurico Gaspar Dutra (1883 - 1974) on the grounds that this activity was degrading to human beings.  As a curiosity, Dutra, as Minister of War, in 1943 organized the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB), which fought in Italy during World War II. He then abolished the death penalty in Brazil and banned the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), which became illegal.

Returning to CAFIB Event, held at the excellent Parque de Exposições José Bráulio, where people were benefited from the huge cover set up over the track installed by Marchador Horse Breeders Brazilian Association (ABCCMM). Established in 1948 and officially recognized in Caxambu in 1949, ABCCMM has over 25,500 members across 56 regional centers nationwide. A few days earlier, from November 11 to 17, the 38th Marching Brazilian Championship and the 47th South Minas Rural Society Mangalarga Marchador Specialized had been judged in this park, with more than 700 animals taking part.

It is also worth mentioning, as a curiosity, that this south Minas Gerais region is the cradle and main breeding center for national breeds of dogs, horses and cattle. In addition to Fila Brasileiro and Mangalarga Marchador, we should also mention the Caracu cattle. In many ways, its origins are reminiscent of those of Fila, as it was formed over a few centuries of random cross breeding between various cattle breeds brought from Europe, on which there is also no consensus, giving rise to various hypothetical theories about its composition. Its formation was also strongly shaped by Brazilian environmental conditions; and natural selection provided it with short hair characteristics, resistance to heat, endoparasites, and ectoparasites, ease movement (good gait), resistant hooves, both for hard and waterlogged soils, short and no prolapse navel, ability to digest coarse fibers, as well as ease calving.

Caracu Breeders Brazilian Association (ABC Caracu) is the oldest entity focused on the genetic improvement of purebred cattle in Brazil and was the first to be organized in the country to studies and genetic material contributions to our livestock. It was founded in 1916 in São Paulo city as the Herd-Book Caracu Association and is currently located in Palmas, south of Paraná.

However, in this triple-purpose breed history (meat, milk and traction), as well as its Association, there have been ups and downs because, while there were Caracu devoted enthusiasts, there were also staunch enemies of the national cattle. The government published the great book “A Fazenda Moderna” in 1913, by Eduardo Cotrim, with many colorful pages (printed in Brussels, Europe), to show the best cattle breeds in the world and, at the same time, severely criticize all the national breeds and even the Zebu, spending several pages depreciating the Caracu and its congeners. This book was a turning point in the period when the breed was abandoned. After a period of decline, breeding began to grow again until the 1940s, when it faced another crisis that culminated in the closure of the Herd-Book Caracu Association in 1965 and, in 1970, with the halting of studies to improve the breed at Fazenda de Seleção do Gado Nacional in Nova Odessa, which had begun in 1909. In 1969, newspaper and magazine reports wrote about “the end of Caracu”.  Fortunately, since that time some zootechnicians and geneticists had already recognized the need to preserve the breed. And in 1976, technicians and researchers from São Paulo State Agriculture and Supply Department Zootechny Institute began a program to reconstitute and study a herd of these cattle. Based on a survey of Caracu cattle breeding centers, 32 herds belonging to 28 breeders were identified, totaling 12,386 animals, of which 6,234 were cows. The formation of a new association of cattle breeders, called “Caracu Breeders Brazilian Association”, in Paraná, 1980, and the consequent opening of herd registry new book, officially recognized by Agriculture Ministry in 1983, as well as the founding of Rio Pardo Valley Caracu Breeders Association, based in Ribeirão Preto (SP), in 1988, were important milestones in the new era of this important Brazilian breed. Striking about Caracu cattle is that, although of European origin (Bos taurus), they are extremely well adapted to Brazil's tropical and subtropical climate. The breed therefore brings the advantages of being a taurine, with the adaptability to thrive in any region of the country, including in Pantanal Matogrossense. The “Census Caracu” was recently instituted, administered by USP/Ribeirão Preto and endorsed by Agriculture Ministry, to promote an accelerated improvement in Caracu carcass qualities, with a view to massifying its use, as well as its variety called Mocho Nacional, in crossbreeding. The oldest selection, which persists to this day, began in 1893 in Poços de Caldas neighborhood, south of Minas Gerais, under the name “Caracu caldeano”, owned by Carvalho Dias family.

The 118th CAFIB Fila Brasileiro National Exhibition, concluding the 2024 World Championship, registered 48 entries and had 41 dogs on the track. Eight dogs took part in Phenotype and Temperament Analysis which, as usual, precedes the judging. One of the dogs failed the temperament test due to a disqualifying reaction. The Event organizers were Lucas Fernandes Maciel and Gerson Ribeiro Junqueira de Barros. Haroldo Audrey Rhodson Alves Santos Mosqueira oversaw the temperament and nervous system tests. The judgments were conducted by the experienced Jonas Tadeu Iacovantuono, who was responsible for the males, and Jaime Pérez Marhuenda, who judged the females. It's worth noting that the Spaniard Jaime, who came from Alicante, accompanied by his wife Elvira and two of his children, Adrián and Gabriela, took advantage of the trip to visit the country’s natural wonders, as he had done several previous occasions in Brazil. He had already been to Bonito (Mato Grosso do Sul – MS), a city known as Brazilian ecotourism capital, and admired the famous Iguaçu Falls on the border Paraná-Argentina. This time, he visited Pantanal once again, which with its incredibly rich biodiversity, is the largest floodplain in the world.

As the Championship draws to a close, we thank the presence of breeders, exhibitors and breed enthusiasts coming from:

Minas Gerais: Alfenas, Baependi, Belo Horizonte, Campo Belo, Caxambu, Cordisburgo, Governador Valadares, Itanhandu, Juiz de Fora, Lavras, Nepomuceno, Nova Lima, Perdões, and Três Corações

São Paulo: Aparecida, Guaratinguetá, São Paulo, and Vargem Grande Paulista

Espírito Santo: Linhares

Goiás: Anápolis

Spain: Alicante and Barcelona.

The main results of this Exhibition were:

BEST MALE: Diamante Recanto do Livramento, owned by Leonardo Monteiro (Cordisburgo, MG)

BEST FEMALE: Iumi Jardim da Lapa, owned by Marcos A. Borges de Melo (Governador Valadares, MG)

BEST HEAD: Baruk IV da Santa Luzia, owned by William Dutra Reis (Governador Valadares, MG)

BEST TEMPERAMENT: Iran Jardim da Lapa, owned by Fernando Durão Duarte Vilela (Linhares, ES).

As of the 2024 World Championship, which had the participation of dogs from Spain, CAFIB, in response to requests from several breeders and exhibitors, in addition to rewarding the Champions of the various modalities evaluated, will also institute the titles of Vice-Champions to those classified in second place.

2024 WORLD CHAMPION: Diamante Recanto do Livramento, by Leonardo Monteiro (Cordisburgo, MG)

2024 WORLD VICE-CHAMPION: Iran Jardim da Lapa, by Fernando Durão Duarte Vilela (Linhares, ES)

2024 WORLD CHAMPION: Iumi Jardim da Lapa, by Marcos A. Borges de Melo (Governador Valadares, MG)

2024 WORLD VICE-CHAMPION: Orquídea Jardim da Lapa, by Marcos A. Borges de Melo (Governador Valadares, MG)

2024 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BREEDER OF THE YEAR: Jardim da Lapa Kennel, by Marcos A. Borges de Melo (Governador Valadares, MG)

2024 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP VICE-BREEDER OF THE YEAR: Recanto do Livramento Kennel, by Leonardo Monteiro (Cordisburgo, MG)

2024 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TEMPERAMENT OF THE YEAR: Diamante Recanto do Livramento, by Leonardo Monteiro (Cordisburgo, MG)

2024 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP VICE-TEMPERAMENT OF THE YEAR: Iran Jardim da Lapa, by Fernando Durão Duarte Vilela (Linhares, ES)

2024 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP EXHIBITOR OF THE YEAR: Marcos A. Borges de Melo (Governador Valadares, MG)

2024 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP VICE-EXHIBITOR OF THE YEAR: Leonardo Monteiro (Cordisburgo, MG)

2024 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP REPRODUCTER OF THE YEAR: Odim Chão de Goyaz, by Marcos A. Borges de Melo (Governador Valadares, MG)

2024 WORLD VICE-REPRODUCTER CHAMPIONSHIP YEAR: Logan Jardim da Lapa, by Marcos A. Borges de Melo (Governador Valadares, MG)

2024 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP REPRODUCTER OF THE YEAR: Greice Makarius do Tuiuti, by Fernando Durão Duarte Vilela (Linhares, ES)

2024 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP VICE- REPRODUCTER OF THE YEAR: Landara Jardim da Lapa, by Marcos A. Borges de Melo (Governador Valadares, MG).

CAFIB is grateful for the sponsorship of Rações Quatree, which provided the Exhibition and World Championship trophies, and bags of feed for the winners. Also like to thank Laboratório Vetnil for the prizes awarded to the winners.

Cafib's website, www.cafib.org.br, contains information and news about Fila Brasileiro breed and club's activities. To follow the results of the Exhibitions and World Championship, click on Exhibitions, then Championship. This data is updated as soon as the results of the trials are published.

Closing the activities of our 2024 Calendar, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.