1. Progress from 1996 BoLA workshop
At the 7th BoLA workshop, it was decided that the workshop report would contain rules for sequence-based nomenclature of class I and class II alleles; that the available class II alleles would be assigned names; and that all of the information on typing and nomenclature of BoLA genes would be made available through a world-wide-web site. Two workshop reports were produced, and published in Animal Genetics in July 1997. Simultaneously with the publication of the reports, the BoLA Nomenclature web site was established.
2. Election of committee members
Three members of the committee, Leif Andersson, Jan van der Poel and Noelle Cockett, indicated their wish to stand down. Nominations were received for the remaining committee members and for two new members, Dr Karin Saker (Virginia Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, USA) and Dr Loren Skow, Texas A&M University, USA), prior to the workshop. However, since Dr Saker is not currently an ISAG member, her nomination was not valid. No further nominations were made at the workshop and the nominees were elected by show of hands. The current committee membership is therefore: Chris Davies, Shirley Ellis, Evert Hensen, Harris Lewin, George Russell, and Loren Skow. Election of chair and secretary for 1998-2000 will be done within the committee by e-mail, since only half of the committee could attend the workshop.
3. Workshop Discussion
• Class I typing and nomenclature
The discussion of class I genes and locus identification emphasised the importance of correlating the established serological data with sequence information. To aid this process, those labs with access to BoLA typing reagents (currently Urbana and Roslin) have agreed to make them available to other workers by arrangement. A proposal for class I nomenclature based on serology and sequence will be prepared by the BoLA committee for the next workshop
• Class II typing and nomenclature
Since the publication of the 7th BoLA workshop report, 11 new DRB3 alleles were named, one allele has been withdrawn, and one allele has been renamed (details below). It was decided that in future, details of acceptance of new BoLA sequences and nomenclature of alleles would be published through the BoLA web site, and would not be included in workshop reports submitted to journals.

BoLA class II summarySequence-based nomeclature was set up following the 1996 BoLA workshop.The 1996 workshop report named:
63 DRB3 alleles of 40 major types;
39 DQA alleles of 20 major types;
37 DQB alleles of 20 major types;
The following alleles were named susequently and have been added to the BoLA web site. DRB3 alleles- 11 new alleles, with 3 new major types added.

Allele	Accession number	Author/contributor
DRB3*0303	AJ 002003	J.C. Maillard, unpublished
DRB3*1203		Y. Aida, unpublished
DRB3*1302		Y. Aida, unpublished
DRB3*1602	U90921	Mikko et al. 1997
DRB3*1902	AJ 002004	J.C. Maillard, unpublished
DRB3*1903	Z82997	K.T. Ballingall, unpublished
DRB3*2707	AJ 002002	J.C. Maillard, unpublished
DRB3*3203	AJ 002000	J.C. Maillard, unpublished
DRB3*4101	U90922	Mikko et al. 1997
DRB3*4201	AJ 001999	J.C. Maillard, unpublished
DRB3*4301	AJ 002001	J.C. Maillard, unpublished

DRB3 alleles removed/renamedDRB3*0102 (Fraser et al. 1996) This allele was found to contain a single base mutation in cloning, and was in fact identical to DRB3*0101.
Action - allele DRB3*0102 was removed as an allele name, but reserve it as referring to the mutant allele.DRB3*3801 (K.T. Ballingall, unpublished) Error in nomenclature - should be with DRB3*1901 major group.
Action - renamed as DRB3*1903. The name DRB3*3801 will not be used for a new allele.DQ alleles No new DQA or DQB alleles since the published report, but three full-length cDNAs were reported for alleles DQA*25012 (Y14020), DQA*2602 (Y14021), and DQA*27012 (Y14022) determined by Keith Ballingall (ILRI).