AASV News – Sept 2013

The American Association of Swine Veterinarians invites submissions for the Industrial Partners portion of the 45th AASV Annual Meeting to be held March 1-4, 2014, in Dallas, Texas. This is an opportunity for commercial companies to make brief presentations of a technical, educational nature to members of the AASV.

As in the past, the oral sessions will consist of a series of 15-minute presentations scheduled from 1:00 to 5:00 pm on Sunday afternoon, March 2. A poster session will take place on the same day. Poster authors will be required to be stationed with their posters from 12:00 noon until 1:00 pm, and the posters will remain on display throughout the afternoon and the following day for viewing by meeting attendees.

Restricted program space necessitates a limit on the number of presentations per company. Companies that are members of the Journal of Swine Health and Production Industry Support Council (listed on the back cover of each issue of the journal) may submit two topics for oral presentation. All other companies may submit one topic for oral presentation. Each company may also submit one topic for poster presentation (poster topics may not duplicate oral presentations). All topics must represent information not previously presented at the AASV Annual Meeting or published in the meeting proceedings.

Topic titles, a brief description of the presentation content, and presenter information (name, address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address) must be received in the AASV office by October 1, 2013. Please identify whether the submission is intended for oral or poster presentation. Send submissions via mail, fax, or e-mail to Commercial Sessions, AASV, 830 26th Street, Perry, IA 50220-2328; Fax: 515-465-3832; E-mail: aasv@aasv.org.

Authors will be notified of their acceptance by October 15, 2013, and must submit the paper for publication in the meeting proceedings by November 15, 2013. All presentations – oral and poster – will be published in the proceedings of the meeting. Papers for poster presentations are limited to one page of text plus one table or figure. Papers for oral presentations may be up to five pages in length (including tables and figures), when formatted according to the guidelines provided to authors upon acceptance of their presentation. Companies failing to submit papers in a timely manner will not be eligible for future participation in these sessions.

Nominate exceptional colleagues for AASV awards

Do you know an AASV member whose dedication to the association and the swine industry is worthy of recognition? The AASV Awards Committee requests nominations for the following five awards to be presented at the upcoming AASV annual meeting in Dallas.

Howard Dunne Memorial Award – Given annually to an AASV member who has made a significant contribution and rendered outstanding service to the AASV and the swine industry.

Meritorious Service Award – Given annually to an individual who has consistently given time and effort to the association in the area of service to the AASV members, AASV officers, and the AASV staff.

Swine Practitioner of the Year – Given annually to the swine practitioner (AASV member) who has demonstrated an unusual degree of proficiency in the delivery of veterinary service to his or her clients.

Technical Services/Allied Industry Veterinarian of the Year – Given annually to the technical services or allied industry veterinarian who has demonstrated an unusual degree of proficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of veterinary service to his or her company and its clients, as well as given tirelessly in service to the AASV and the swine industry.

Young Swine Veterinarian of the Year – Given annually to a swine veterinarian who is an AASV member, 5 years or less post-graduation, who has demonstrated the ideals of exemplary service and proficiency early in his or her career.

Nominations are due December 16. The nomination letter should specify the award and cite the qualifications of the candidate for the award. Submit to AASV, 830 26th Street, Perry, IA 50220-2328; Fax: 515-465-3832; E-mail: aasv@aasv.org.

Call for papers – AASV 2014 Student Seminar

The American Association of Swine Veterinarians announces an opportunity for veterinary students to make a scientific presentation at the AASV Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas, on Sunday, March 2, 2014. Interested students are invited to submit a 1-page abstract of a research paper, clinical case study, or literature review for consideration. The submitting student must be a current (2013-2014) student member of the AASV at the time of submission, and must not have graduated from veterinary school prior to March 2, 2014. Submissions are limited to one (1) abstract per student.

Abstracts and supplementary materials must be received by Dr Alex Ramirez (alex@aasv.org) by 11:59 pm Central Daylight Time on Monday, September 23, 2013 (firm deadline). All material must be submitted electronically. Late abstracts will not be considered. You should receive an e-mail confirming the receipt of your submission. If you do not receive this confirmation e-mail, you must contact Dr Alex Ramirez (alex@aasv.org) by Wednesday, September 25, 2013, with supporting evidence that the submission was made in time; otherwise, your submission will not be considered for judging. The abstracts will be reviewed by an unbiased professional panel consisting of a private practitioner, an academician, and an industry veterinarian. Fifteen abstracts will be selected for oral presentation in the Student Seminar at the AASV Annual Meeting. Students whose papers are selected will be notified by October 15, 2013, and will be expected to provide the complete paper or abstract, reformatted for publication, by November 15, 2013.

To help defray the costs of attending the AASV meeting, Zoetis provides a $750 honorarium to the student presenter of each paper selected for oral presentation during the Student Seminar.

Veterinary student scholarships

Each veterinary student whose paper is selected for oral presentation also competes for one of several veterinary student scholarships awarded through the AASV Foundation. The oral presentations will be judged to determine the amount of the scholarship awarded. Zoetis funds a $5000 scholarship for the student whose paper, oral presentation, and supporting information are judged best overall. Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, on behalf of Elanco Animal Health, provides $20,000 in additional funding, enabling the AASV Foundation to award $2500 each for 2nd through 5th place, $1500 each for 6th through 10th place, and $500 each for 11th through 15th place.

Abstracts that are not selected for oral presentation in the Student Seminar will be considered for participation in a poster session at the annual meeting. Zoetis and the AASV fund a stipend of $250 for each student who is selected and participates in the poster presentation. In addition, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc provides financial support for the Veterinary Student Poster Competition. The presenters of the top 15 poster abstracts compete for awards ranging from $200 to $500.

Complete information for preparing and submitting abstracts is available on the AASV Web site at www.aasv.org/annmtg/2014/studentseminar.htm. Please note: the rules for submission should be followed carefully. For more information, contact the AASV office (Tel: 515-465-5255; Fax: 515-465-3832; E-mail: aasv@aasv.org).

AVMA Workforce Report confirms excess capacity in US veterinary profession

A major study released April 23 by the AVMA and conducted by IHS Healthcare & Pharma in partnership with the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the State University of New York estimates an excess capacity of veterinary services in the United States. Specifically, the report indicates that the US supply of veterinarians in 2012 was 90,200, and that supply exceeded the demand for veterinary services by about 11,250 full-time equivalent veterinarians.

The excess capacity estimated in the report does not mean that 11,250 veterinarians were unemployed during the study period, but that 12.5% of veterinarians’ capacity to provide services was going unused. If current conditions continue, the study projects that this is likely to persist into the foreseeable future.

A veterinary workforce survey used as a part of the study asked respondent veterinarians working in clinical practice to characterize their local veterinary market and their practices’ capacity and productivity. Fifty-three percent of those surveyed said that they believed they were working at less than full capacity. One question the AVMA hopes to answer going forward is why some clinical practices are working at full capacity and others are not.

The workforce study was conducted using expert analysis and the best available existing data collected by the AVMA, federal agencies, and other organizations, as well as the aforementioned veterinary workforce survey. However, during the study, major gaps in data were identified.

As a result of the national study, the AVMA also announced that it has developed a new computer software model that will help paint a clearer picture of the current and future veterinary workforce. The Veterinary Workforce Simulation Model, an AVMA-owned, proprietary software, will play a key role in helping the AVMA and its recently established Veterinary Economics Division produce ongoing updates that will enable the association, veterinarians, veterinary educators, and other key stakeholders to better understand issues pertaining to the supply and demand for veterinarians and veterinary services, as well as overall veterinary economics. The improved ability to collect, measure, track, and analyze these data will help fill long-existing gaps in important information that affected this study and others in the past.

The AVMA wants to emphasize that the report and its findings are a starting point and not the end of efforts to ensure adequate access to veterinary services and the economic viability of the veterinary medical profession.

The association invites AVMA and Student AVMA members to comment on the findings through their Network of Animal Health Discussion Groups. The “2013 U.S. Veterinary Workforce Study,” as well as a companion report issued by the AVMA Workforce Advisory Group, titled “Implications of the 2013 Veterinary Workforce Study and Recommendations for Future Actions,” are available on the AVMA’s website (www.avma.org).

Source: AVMA

Butch Baker named 2013 NHF Master of the Pork Industry

The National Hog Farmer magazine named AASV Past President Rodney “Butch” Baker, DVM, a 2013 Master of the Pork Industry. He joins fellow masters Robert Thaler, Jeff Hansen, Bradley Wolter, Jim Meimann, and Malcolm DeKryger.

Baker serves as a senior clinician and holds the Dr David R. Trask Professorship in Entrepreneurial Studies in the Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine Department in the ISU College of Veterinary Medicine. In his teaching appointment, he assists fellow swine veterinarians, Locke Karriker and Alex Ramirez, in the swine medicine rotation, also giving lectures on a variety of subjects in other veterinary medicine courses. He and Ramirez teach a livestock disease-prevention class in the Animal Science Department, which is a pre-veterinary class that Baker started. The class has grown simply by word of mouth. The goal is to teach pre-veterinary students many of the principles about animal agriculture, including pharmacology, vaccines, antibiotics, specific species health concerns, and current health and welfare issues.

Last October, Baker was appointed to serve as interim director of the Iowa Pork Industry Center. He has agreed to serve in that capacity until June 2014, when he turns 67 years old. Baker served as AASV president in 2009 and describes his experience with AASV as “one of the most motivating” in his career.

Dr Baker has also become actively involved in research on some of the most devastating diseases affecting the swine industry, including porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome and swine influenza.

Kehrli named NADC director

AASV member Dr Marcus Kehrli has been named the center director for the National Animal Disease Center (NADC) in Ames, Iowa. He replaces Acting Center Director Diana Whipple, Deputy Center Director.

Dr Kehrli received a PhD (1989) in Immunobiology, a DVM (1982), a BS in Dairy Science (1978), and a BS in Bacteriology (1978), all from Iowa State University. His research career at the National Animal Disease Center began in 1982 on bovine mastitis, where he eventually became the Lead Scientist for the Immunology of Ruminant Perinatal Diseases Project until he joined Pfizer Animal Health in 1998. From 1998 to 2003, Dr Kehrli was a principal research investigator for Pfizer Global Research and Development, Veterinary Medicine Pharmaceutical Discovery, where his research focused on pursuit of novel therapeutic solutions for livestock diseases. In 2003, Dr Kehrli returned to NADC as research leader of the Virus and Prion Research Unit, where he has implemented a broad, multidisciplinary program of applied and fundamental research to alleviate the economic impact of bacterial, viral, and prion diseases on livestock and wildlife industries. His primary area of research expertise has been immunity to infectious diseases of cattle and swine.

Dr Kehrli has authored or co-authored over 147 publications in refereed scientific journals, and also contributed to a variety of book chapters and monographs. He holds four US patents and has five additional patents pending. Dr Kehrli is a past president of the American Association of Veterinary Immunologists. He is an adjunct faculty member (professor) of the Department of Animal Science and the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine and the Immunobiology Interdepartmental Program at Iowa State University, and has served on the graduate committee of 20 PhD or MS graduate students, including roles as major or co-major professor. In his tenure at NADC, he has mentored eight postdoctoral research associates and three visiting scientists. He currently serves as an advisor to the National Pork Board Swine Health Committee.

Source: USDA

Premises ID critical for understanding PEDV

One of the most important things you can do to further the understanding of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus is to include the premises identification number (PIN) on all laboratory submissions. The PIN, along with a statement granting the lab permission to provide the information in a confidential and secure manner for further disease analysis, allows researchers to monitor accessions and serves as a farm identifier to aid in conducting an epidemiologic analysis of disease spread. Premises registration is supported by pork producers and the AASV. The National Pork Board has fact sheets available covering the use of PIN tags. The fact sheets are available free of charge at the Pork Store (https://porkstore.pork.org/product-detail.aspx?product=185) or by e-mailing Dr Patrick Webb (pwebb@pork.org).

In addition to including the PIN, it is critical that you provide as much information as possible regarding the herd and the clinical signs observed. The laboratory can use this information to further analyze trends in disease spread and expression. If we are going to adequately analyze this disease incursion, it is vital that we provide as much information as possible to support the efforts at the veterinary diagnostic laboratories.

Guidance for vaccine licensure may speed modifications

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Veterinary Service has issued a memorandum providing guidance to licensees, permittees, and applicants regarding the licensure of Production Platforms used for recombinant, non-replicating, nonviable constructs intended for use as biological products.

Advances in molecular biology have resulted in the development of manufacturing processes of genetic recombinant constructs varying only with respect to the inclusion of one or a few specific gene inserts utilizing essentially identical procedures and components. This type of manufacturing process, referred to as a Production Platform, offers a consistent manufacturing process for incorporating gene inserts of contemporary microorganisms into biological products, resulting in a finished product that is available more rapidly than a product that is developed by conventional approaches. In addition, the process is well defined and expected to be consistent with respect to the product safety profile, testing methods, and manufacturing equipment and reagents.

This approach will allow a more rapid response to emerging diseases resulting from antigenic shift and drift and/or may be used in cases where the culture requirements for an infectious organism are difficult to reproduce in vitro and/or culture of the live organism poses a human or animal health hazard.

The Center for Veterinary Biologics (CVB) will consider conditional license applications for products based on Production Platform technology that result in a recombinant, non-replicating, nonviable construct (ie, killed products) intended for use as biological products in which the master sequence for the protective gene or genes may be exchanged post-licensure without requiring additional field safety studies or reevaluation for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act.

This policy is applicable to all biological products; however, a determination will be made by the CVB regarding the appropriateness of the proposed Production Platform and its use. The CVB will base its consideration on the disease agent and animal and public health concerns, as well as the impact on the environment, disease surveillance, and commerce. Product applications are limited to non-replicating, nonviable recombinant constructs that result in biological products. Each product will be limited to a single disease agent and specific gene or set of genes, the sequences of which are to be provided to the CVB.

Source: USDA VS Memorandum 460 (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/vet_biologics/publications/Memodraft_460.pdf)