David Burch, a member of the AASV and section editor on antimicrobial resistance for the AASV newsletter, has recently been elected President of the Pig Veterinary Society. The Society was founded in 1963 and by 2000 had nearly 600 members who are all veterinarians. Two meetings are held each year when the health, welfare and many other factors that relate to the pig are discussed and debated.
The Pig Veterinary Society exists to assist its members to care for pigs, through dissemination of knowledge about health, disease, the pig’s welfare and its management. In order to achieve these aims it produces a number of publications including The Pig Journal. David has produced the Pig Journal ( http://www.pigjournal.co.uk ), the refereed publication and proceedings of the Society, for many years. He is a director of his own company Octagon Services Ltd, specialising in the development, registration and use of antimicrobials in pigs, and his own interests are in their pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic relationships, their clinical effect and resistance development.