The first move to establish an international society for animal breeding was made during the Fourth International Congress of Animal Husbandry held at Zürich in 1939. The idea was revived in 1946 when the Swiss Society of Animal Husbandry again took up the matter, with the result that a meeting was held in Zürich in October 1947, attended by Mr. Alec Hobson and Mr. I. L. Mason representing the British Society of Animal Production. At this meeting it was agreed that an international organisation composed of private societies directly concerned with animal production was highly desirable and a preparatory committee was elected to prepare draft statutes. The United Kingdom was a member of this committee. The secretarial work was entrusted to the FAO Temporary Bureau in Europe, and was in fact mainly carried out by Dr. I. Moskovits of the Animal Production Branch.