The AASV Annual Meeting was science-based and personally motivating. Members in attendance rose to the challenge of this year’s theme, “Be There!” We are fortunate to have veterinarian members and scientists with a vested interest in sharing both their own successes and failures. Some of our worst blunders were laid out on the main stage for a clear view of the present dangers we face. I am not sure any of us enjoy discussions around the high cost of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome or the failures of keeping porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) out of sow farms; not to mention, we have ever-closer foreign animal diseases on our doorstep.
If you have not yet carved out an evening or weekend to review the papers and share messages with your partners and friends, I challenge you to make that commitment. We have been blessed with helpful plans and experiences which guide the way for better healthcare for our clients. We were even fortunate to hear about the successful control of a scary zoonotic disease entry in Australia, which lead to a massive and aggressive control program to help protect animals and the people who care for them. I encourage you to check out Dr Chris Richards’ clear and direct presentation on Japanese encephalitis virus if you have not read it yet.1
Mentorship and student interaction was again a strong focus of the meeting. We are so fortunate to have companies and the AASV Foundation willing to invest in the scholarships and presentation program. We as members now need to focus on how we each foster and develop this strong talent in the years to come. The AASV has started the targeted mentorship program. I was thrilled to also see the large diverse group of students in attendance. Our responsibility as members of the organization is to build on these relationships with mentor relationships. Be there – for the younger members. Share your contact information. Make the call or send the note to foster the relationship. We know the first few years of medicine are very challenging for our newest members.
Tuesday is often a tough time to bring a crowd to the main session of the meeting. Monday celebrations and a long weekend make additional learning on Tuesday hard for some. This year was different. People stayed and participated in an engaging discussion of PEDV elimination followed by nutritionist/veterinarian system operation experiences shared by two premier business groups in our industry, AMVC and JBS. After the robust discussion of PEDV elimination, I was personally motivated to pull together a group from our membership with a clear mission for PEDV elimination. We can do this. We already have the technology and know the disease well.
If not us, then who? If not now, then when? We have what we need to eliminate PEDV from the US sow herd. Several production systems joined in the discussion of risks and needs for this to become a reality. Vaccine discussion even raised the reminder that a modified-live virus vaccine in growing pigs could very well be the step we are not trying (with older veterinarians laughing at the connections to the days of pseudorabies virus elimination). Be on the lookout for more discussions to come relative to the elimination of PEDV from the US swine herd. We have the tools. We have the science. We now need the focus and motivation.
William L Hollis, DVM
AASV President
Reference
*1. Richards C, van Dissel J, Suter R, Eastaugh M, Dunlop R, Harrison T, Carr J. When does being prepared pay off? Japanese encephalitis – the Australian experience. In: Proceedings of the 54th AASV Annual Meeting. American Association of Swine Veterinarians; 2023:384-385. https://doi.org/10.54846/am2023/176
* Non-refereed reference.