The American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) held its 47th annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, February 27 to March 1, 2016. The meeting, held at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans, drew record attendance of 1160 total attendees, including 696 paid registrants (also a record), 278 international members (24% of the total attendees), and 148 students. The participants represented 31 countries, including the United States. Total attendance included 243 allied industry representatives from 85 exhibitors. The students in attendance represented 25 veterinary schools!

The meeting participants attended numerous educational sessions, including 10 pre-conference workshops, two general sessions, three break-out sessions, research topics, industrial partner sessions, 15 Student Seminar presentations, and 73 posters. In addition, 13 AASV committees met during the conference.

Dr John Harding opened the Monday General Session with the Howard Dunne Memorial Lecture. His presentation, entitled “Emergence of Brachyspira hampsonii in western Canada: A collaborative success” described the multidisciplinary collaborative approach employed by researchers at the University of Saskatchewan when faced with the emergence of an enteric pathogen. One of the key takeaways from Dr Harding’s talk is his commentary on the essential elements of collaboration. These elements are applicable to anyone working with groups of individuals with varying backgrounds. He concluded by encouraging the audience to “strive to be a pioneer; strive to make a lasting difference in your professional and personal lives.”

Dr Peggy Anne Hawkins presented the Alex Hogg Memorial Lecture entitled “Whose shoulders are we standing on?” Her presentation explored the issues of collaboration within the profession of swine veterinary medicine, given the diversity of our individual members. She described the personality types and generational values that make up the membership of the AASV as a facet of our collaborative spirit.

The second half of the Monday morning session focused on a variety of topics, including neonatal immunity, public perception of pork production, welfare audits, and collaboration. Monday afternoon concurrent sessions allowed attendees the opportunity to delve deeper into the broad topics of enteric coronaviruses, respiratory diseases, and antibiotic use. The Tuesday General Session addressed the issues associated with the introduction of transboundary and emerging swine diseases. The Howard Dunne and Alex Hogg Memorial Lectures were video recorded and have been posted in the video library on the AASV Web site.

The AASV Awards Reception was held Monday night, followed by the AASV Foundation’s annual fund-raising auction. Dr Tara Donovan, 2012 AASV president and chair of the 2016 Awards Selection Committee, presented the recipients of the Swine Practitioner of the Year (Dr Luc Dufresne), the Howard Dunne Memorial Award (Dr Scott Dee), the Meritorious Service Award (Dr Patrick Webb), the Young Swine Veterinarian of the Year Award (Dr Chase Stahl), and the Technical Services/Allied Industry Veterinarian of the Year Award (Dr Bob Thompson).

Swine Practitioner of the Year

Dr Luc Dufresne was named 2016 Swine Practitioner of the Year. The award is given to the swine practitioner who has demonstrated an unusual degree of proficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of veterinary service to clients.

Dr Dufresne obtained his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Montreal in 1988. Following graduation, he accepted a position as staff veterinarian with Shur-Gain in St-Hughes, Quebec, Canada. In this position, his responsibilities included supervision of the health of the swine multiplication pyramid and commercial herd. In 1990, he transitioned into the role of swine consultant with Shur-Gain in Brossard, Quebec, Canada, where he supervised the veterinary staff and was the health advisor for the company’s internal swine production unit, as well as a customer network of 50,000 sows.

Dr Dufresne moved to Warsaw, North Carolina, in 1997 to become the director of health services at Brown’s of Carolina. He supervised the swine health department and personnel for a 115,000-sow pyramid in North Carolina. Since leaving Brown’s in 2001, Dufresne served as a technical services veterinarian for Boehringer Ingelheim and then for Pig Improvement Company before joining Seaboard Foods as the Director of Health Assurance in 2004.

Dr Dufresne joined AASV in 1989. He received the Al Leman Science in Practice Award from the University of Minnesota in 2014.

Asked to comment about receiving this award, Dr Dufresne replied, “I am truly honoured to receive that award. Being a swine veterinarian has been a wonderful and rewarding career. I want to thank my wife and family that have supported me throughout my career and all the veterinarians, producers, and swine-production specialists that I had the chance to work and interact with during the last 28 years. It is their willingness to share their knowledge that allows me to do what I do today.”

Dr Dufresne and his wife, Genevieve, reside in Kansas City, Missouri. They have three children: Edouard, William, and Thomas.

Howard Dunne Memorial Award

Dr Scott Dee received the American Association of Swine Veterinarians’ 2016 Howard Dunne Memorial Award. The award recognizes an AASV member who has made important contributions and provided outstanding service to the association and the swine industry.

Dr Dee was born in Rochester, Minnesota, and gained exposure to the research opportunities in veterinary medicine working on the Mayo Clinic research farm. He received a master’s degree in veterinary microbiology in 1985 and his DVM in 1987, both from the University of Minnesota. Following graduation, Dee practiced for the next 12 years in a swine-specific practice in Morris, Minnesota. While in practice, he earned board certification in veterinary microbiology (1993) and obtained a PhD in veterinary medicine from the University of Minnesota (1996).

Dr Dee left practice in 1999 to join the swine medicine faculty as an associate professor at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. While at the university, he conducted research in the areas of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus transmission and biosecurity. He served as a full professor in the Department of Veterinary Population Medicine from 2005 until he left the university in 2011 to accept his current position as the director of research for Pipestone Veterinary Services in Pipestone, Minnesota. Currently, he oversees the Pipestone Applied Research division, as well as conducting research in the areas of air filtration and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus transmission and biosecurity.

Dr Dee has received numerous awards, including the AASV Swine Practitioner of the Year Award (1996), the AD Leman Science in Practice award (1996), the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine Distinguished Alumnus award (1996), the AVMA Practitioner Research Award (1998), University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine Teaching Incentive awards (1999 and 2000), University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine Mark of Excellence Award (2005), University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine Pfizer Award for Research Excellence (2007), and the Gustavus Adolphus College Distinguished Alumni Certificate in Veterinary Medicine and Sesquicentennial Award (2012). Dr Dee has served on the AASV board of directors and as president of the association in 2006.

When asked what it meant to him to receive the Howard Dunne Memorial Award he responded, “I am both honored and humbled that my peers would consider me for this award. It is also highly motivational and will re-energize me to continue to bring value to the AASV membership and the swine industry. I have a great deal of work left to do.”

Scott, his wife Lisa, and their two children, Nicholas and Ellen, live in Alexandria, Minnesota.

Meritorious Service Award

Dr Patrick Webb was named the 2016 recipient of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians Meritorious Service Award. The award recognizes individuals who have provided outstanding service to the AASV.

Although born in Idaho, Dr Webb spent his formative years in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. He had his first exposure to swine production while attending Scattergood Friends School in West Branch, Iowa. The school maintained a 100-sow farrow-to-finish operation. He earned his DVM degree from Iowa State University in 1998. Following graduation, he joined Red Oak Veterinary Clinic in Red Oak, Iowa, where he practiced for a year. In 1999, he left Red Oak to join Stuart Veterinary Clinic in Stuart, Iowa, prior to opening his own veterinary consulting and contracting service in 2001. Webb served as the assistant state fair veterinarian at the Iowa State Fair for a number of years and worked for Iowa’s Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship as foreign animal disease program coordinator, where he developed the department’s emergency preparedness plan for animal-disease disasters. He joined the National Pork Board as director of swine health, his current position, in 2005.

Throughout his career, Dr Webb has worked extensively on emergency preparedness and planning at the local, state, and federal levels. He has developed and delivered numerous educational programs directed at training producers, veterinarians, county emergency managers, and first responders on how to respond to foreign-animal disease disasters. Dr Webb joined AASV in 2006. He currently chairs the AASV Foreign Animal Disease Committee.

When asked to comment about receiving the award, Webb responded, “It is truly an honor to receive this award from such a prestigious association. I greatly appreciate the recognition, and this award will always rank as one of the most significant events in my career.”

Dr Webb and his wife, Sherrie, reside in Dexter, Iowa, with their newborn son, Bennett.

Young Swine Veterinarian of the Year Award

The American Association of Swine Veterinarian’s Young Swine Veterinarian of the Year Award was presented to Dr Chase Stahl. It is given annually to an AASV member, 5 or fewer years post graduation, who has demonstrated the ideals of exemplary service and proficiency early in his or her career.

Dr Stahl is a 2012 graduate of Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He was raised on a farm near Clarion, Iowa, where his parents, Nick and Kathy, still reside. Although his family did not raise livestock, he was fortunate to have the opportunity to assist friends and neighbors with their livestock operations. It wasn’t until he had a summer job at Iowa State’s diagnostic laboratory that he became determined to pursue a career in swine veterinary medicine.

Dr Stahl spent his first year following veterinary school practicing as a staff veterinarian with Iowa Select Farms. In 2013, he joined the Fairmont Veterinary Clinic in Fairmont, Minnesota, where he and his seven partners and two associate veterinarians focus on serving swine and beef producers in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Dr Stahl has the great privilege of assisting many independent swine producers with their health, production, marketing, and nutritional needs. He takes immense pride in getting to know his clients on a personal level, listening to their needs, and developing and implementing a plan, all grounded in the understanding that the pig has to come first in whatever decision is made.

Dr Stahl has been a member of AASV since he began veterinary school in 2008. He is an active committee member on the AASV’s Student Recruitment Committee and has helped organize the annual National Pork Industry Foundation veterinary student internship program. This program focuses on providing first- and second-year veterinary students with an opportunity to gain more swine veterinary experience through a month-long mentorship program alongside a practicing swine veterinarian. He and his wife, Summer, are also board members of the local Martin County Pork Producers chapter.

At acceptance of the award, Dr Stahl commented, “I am very humbled and deeply honored to be the recipient of this award. The swine industry and AASV have provided me a unique opportunity to build professional and personal relationships with many producers and employees. I am extremely grateful to my wife, my parents, former mentors, and the Fairmont Veterinary Clinic/Preferred Capital Management family for their guidance and support during the last 4 years. I am also infinitely indebted to all the producers and employees who have made me a better veterinarian by challenging me to approach any recommendations from both a producer and veterinarian perspective.”

Chase and his wife, Summer, reside in Fairmont, Minnesota, along with their two yellow Labradors, Kia and Stella.

Technical Services/Allied Industry Veterinarian of the Year Award

Dr Bob Thompson received the American Association of Swine Veterinarians’ Technical Services/Allied Industry Veterinarian of the Year Award. Established in 2008, the award recognizes swine industry veterinarians who have demonstrated an unusual degree of proficiency and effectiveness in delivery of veterinary service to their companies and their clients, as well as given tirelessly in service to the AASV and the swine industry.

Dr Thompson was recognized for his years in technical service at Pig Improvement Company (PIC). Since joining PIC in 1991, he has served numerous roles, initially as manager of transportation and supply chain, then as production manager of PIC’s owned production in the eastern United States, western region contract multiplication, health assurance, and currently health services for North America. His current title is Coordinator of Health Services for North America. In this role, he works with PIC’s other technical service teams to improve performance of their products in customer systems.

Dr Thompson has worked extensively with the PIC affiliate and user-group boar stud system and served as an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois in the integrated food animal management systems (IFAMS) program. Achievements in his tenure at PIC have been conversion of PIC’s Owned and Multiplication System from 98% PRRSV-positive to 100% negative and establishment of two PRRS-negative genetic nucleus herds from positive sources in the late 90’s, along with the production and health assurance team at the time. In 2008, he had the opportunity to work with the establishment of Apex as a new genetic nucleus in South Dakota.

Dr Thompson has been influential in coordinating research with universities on inactivation of PRRSV and PEDV in transportation trailers using disinfection and heat, termed temperature assisted drying and decontamination (TADD). Previously he received two technical service awards from PIC’s Global Technical Service Team.

Dr Thompson was born in Huron, South Dakota, but spent his formative years in Sioux Center, Iowa. He received his DVM from Iowa State University. Following graduation, he joined the Columbus Veterinary Hospital in Columbus, Nebraska, focusing on mixed animal, and later purchased a practice in Osceola, Nebraska. In 1989, he was accepted into the IFAMS program at the University of Illinois before joining PIC in 1991.

Dr Thompson currently serves on the Trucker Quality Assurance Advisory Board and the Swine Health Committee for the National Pork Board. He was also recently named to the newly formed Secure Pork Supply Implementation Taskforce.

When asked to comment on what the award meant to him, Dr Thompson said, “It is an honor to be recognized by your peers for working in the industry. I’ve had the opportunity to work with many of the leaders of our time in practice, industry, and research. My goal has been to share my knowledge along with other PIC team members to help our customers be more successful, ultimately doing what’s right for the pigs.”

Dr Thompson and his wife, Debra, reside in Franklin, Kentucky. They have two daughters, Kasey and Leslie.

AASV Foundation announces student scholarships

The American Association of Swine Veterinarians Foundation awarded scholarships totaling $25,000 to 15 veterinary students.

Christine Mainquist-Whigham, Iowa State University, received the $5000 scholarship for top student presentation. Her presentation was titled “Residue depletion profile of ampicillin trihydrate in cull sows.” Zoetis provided the financial support for the Top Student Presenter Award.

Additional scholarships totaling $20,000 were funded by Elanco Animal Health. Four veterinary student presenters received $2500 scholarships: Sara Davenport, University of Pennsylvania; Taylor Engle, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine; Holly Salzbrenner, Iowa State University; and Ryan Strobel, University of Minnesota.

Five veterinary student presenters received $1500 scholarships: Alyssa Anderson, University of Minnesota; Victoria Foerster, Iowa State University; Olivia Myers, North Carolina State University; Quynn Steichen, Kansas State University; and Kathleen Wood, North Carolina State University.

Student presenters receiving $500 scholarships were Sindu Manoharan, University of Pennsylvania; Timothy Pearson, University of Tennessee; Eric Perrin, University of Guelph; Scott Radke, Iowa State University; and Brent Sexton, Iowa State University.

Fifty-five veterinary students from 16 universities submitted abstracts for consideration. From those submissions, 15 students were selected to present during the annual meeting. Zoetis, sponsor of the Student Seminar, provided a $750 travel stipend to each student selected to participate.

AASV announces Veterinary Student Poster Competition awardees

The American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) provided an opportunity for 15 veterinary students to compete for awards in the Veterinary Student Poster Competition. Newport Laboratories sponsored the competition, offering awards totaling $3600.

On the basis of scores received in the original judging of abstracts submitted for the AASV Student Seminar, the top 15 abstracts not selected for oral presentation at the annual meeting were eligible to compete in the poster competition.

Newport Laboratories announced the following awards during the AASV Luncheon on Monday, February 29:

$500 scholarship: Daniel Gascho, Purdue University – top student poster entitled “Effect of pre-farrow ceftiofur sodium administration on Streptococcus suis colonization of periparturient females and their litters;”

$400 scholarships: Kayla Blake, Auburn University; T’Lee Girard, Iowa State University;

$300 scholarships: Donna Drebes, University of Minnesota; Katharine Kancer, University of Illinois; Megan Pieters, Iowa State University; and

$200 scholarships: Chris Deegan, University of Minnesota; Kathryn Duda, University of Illinois; Emily Mahan-Riggs, North Carolina State University; Jessica Piergiovanni, University of Pennsylvania; Kara Telfer, Iowa State University; Ryan Tenbergen, University of Guelph; Thomas Wurtz, Washington State University.

In addition to the poster competition awards, each student poster participant received a $250 travel stipend from Zoetis and the AASV.

  

Annual Business Breakfast

American Association of Swine Veterinarians President Dr Ron Brodersen reported on the association’s membership and activities during the annual breakfast on Tuesday, March 1. He stated that there were 1734 members, including 316 student members. Dr Brodersen thanked outgoing directors Dr Bill Starke (District 3), Dr Brian Schantz (District 8), and Chris Sievers, student delegate to the board, for their service. He welcomed incoming directors, District 3, Dr Greg Cline and District 8, Dr Monte Fuhrman, and incoming Alternate Student Delegate Brent Sexton (ISU ’18). Dr Brodersen announced that there would be an election to replace Dr Daniels (District 7), given his election as vice president. Honored guests at the business breakfast included Dr Joe Kinnarney (AVMA president), Dr John Howe (AVMA executive board representative), Dr David Pyburn (NPB senior vice president of science and technology), and Dr Liz Wagstrom (National Pork Producers Council chief veterinarian). The audience heard updates from each respective organization. Approximately 160 people attended the breakfast.

New officers

Dr George Charbonneau was installed as president, succeeding Dr Ron Brodersen, who is now immediate past president. Dr Alejandro “Alex” Ramirez has ascended to president-elect. The newly elected vice president is Dr Scanlon Daniels.

Save the date

The 2017 annual meeting is scheduled for February 25 to February 28, 2017, in Denver, Colorado.

Photo courtesy statement

Photos are courtesy of Tina Smith.

Thank you, AASV Annual Meeting sponsors!

AASV members attending the annual meeting make a substantial investment in the form of registration fees, travel, lodging, meals, and potential loss of income while away from work. However, the cost of attendance would be even greater – or the quality of the meeting experience reduced – if it were not for the financial support provided by corporate sponsors for refreshments, meals, and social activities, as well as scholarships and travel stipends for veterinary students. The AASV extends its sincere appreciation for the sponsorship of meeting events by the following companies:

• Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc (AASV Luncheon)
• CEVA Animal Health (Refreshment Break)
• Elanco Animal Health (AASV Awards Reception and AASV Foundation Veterinary Student Scholarships)
• Harrisvaccines (Refreshment Break)
• Hog Slat (Refreshment Break)
• Merck Animal Health (Student Reception, Student Swine Trivia Event, Merck Veterinary Student Scholarships)
• Newport Laboratories (Veterinary Student Travel Stipends and Veterinary Student Poster Scholarships)
• Stuart Products (Praise Breakfast)
• Zoetis (Welcome Reception, AASV Student Seminar and Student Poster Session, AASV Foundation Top Student Presenter Scholarship)

The AASV is also grateful to the 85 companies and organizations that provided support through their participation in the 2016 Technical Tables exhibit. Thank you all!