During the AASV Annual Meeting, 30 veterinary students interviewed conference speakers to gain additional information about their presentation topic. The next of these MP3 audio interviews is now available to members on the AASV website at https://www.aasv.org/members/only/pod/. Student member Kimberley Painter interviewed Dr. Jeremy Pittman who helped lead an Interactive Case Study as part of the Swine Production and Medicine for Veterinary ”Students” pre-conference seminar. Watch for additional podcast interviews in the coming weeks!
Monthly Archives: July 2012
Position Announcement: Director of Veterinary Technology
TAMU-Kingsville seeks an Assistant/Associate/Full Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Animal, Rangeland and Wildlife Sciences, College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Human Sciences, Texas A&M University-Kingsville and the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute. This is a 75% teaching and 25% research, 9-month, tenure-track appointment. The research program must maintain at least 2 graduate students, at least $50K/year in external funding, and publish at least 1 refereed manuscript per year. In time, a second DVM position will be added to the program and the teaching load of this position will be lowered and an administrative appointment will be added. Summer salary (3 months) is available through summer teaching, or personal research grants. Initial salary shall be commensurate with qualifications and experience.
Veterinary Student Travel Awards available for USAHA/AAVLD Annual Meeting
To promote student interest in careers in public veterinary practice and diagnostic veterinary medicine, the Veterinary Student Travel Awards program is soliciting applications for veterinary student attendance at the 2012 joint United States Animal Health Association (USAHA) and the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) meeting. Ten competitive $500 Travel Awards will be granted to students to offset travel expenses to the annual joint USAHA/AAVLD Meeting on October 17-24, 2012 in Greensboro, NC. One additional award funded by the Western States Livestock Health Association will go to a student from one of the western veterinary colleges. The AAVLD and USAHA have agreed to waive registration fees for veterinary students attending the meeting. Veterinary students from all U.S. colleges of veterinary medicine are eligible to apply.
Register now for the 2012 Allen D. Leman Swine Conference
Science-driven solutions⢠is the theme for the 2012 Allen D. Leman Swine Conference September 15 â 18. The conference will be held at the St. Paul RiverCentre, St. Paul, Minnesota. Register before August 13, 2012 to get outstanding prices and the first chance at capacity limited sessions.
NAHMS 2012 Swine Study Kicks Off
USDAâs National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) has begun the Swine 2012 Study this month (July 2012). This is the fifth national swine study done to date during which NAHMS will take an in-depth look at swine operations in the United States. The study will address such issues as swine production practices, trends in swine health and management, the prevalence and risk of unknown pathogens, economic treatment of those pathogens, and antibiotic usage patterns.
“FMD Response Plan, the “”Red Book”” June 2012″
The Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) Response Plan: The Red Book (June 2012) is now available at the National Center for Animal Health Emergency Management (NCAHEM) Web site via the following link under “Related Topics” (FMD Response Plan): http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/emergency_management/ .
Applied Animal and Public Health Research and Extension Symposium Seeks Presenters
Have you worked on a project or developed resources related to animal or public health this year? Would you like to share it with an avid audience? Coordinators for the 8th Annual Applied Animal and Public Health Research and Extension Symposium are seeking presenters for the upcoming symposium. This event is sponsored by the American Association of Extension Veterinarians and will be held on Saturday, October 20, 2012 from 3:00 â 6:00pm in Greensboro, NC (coincides with the US Animal Health Association Annual Meeting).
Support the AASV Foundation: Register Your Golf Team by August 9
Make plans now to attend the AASV Foundation Golf Outing at Veenker Memorial Golf Course in Ames, Iowa, on Thursday, August 23rd! Your participation supports the programs and activities of the AASV Foundation. Several teams have already registered, and support from sponsors has been confirmed, including Dinner Sponsor Pfizer Animal Health, Luncheon Sponsor CLARCOR Air Filtration Products, Beverage Sponsor Harrisvaccines and Golf Hole Sponsors Alltech, Elanco, Insight Wealth Group, and NPPC. See www.aasv.org/shap/issues/v20n4/v20n4golf.html for outing details and the registration form.
Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine Provides Superior Protection from Heterologous Infection in Pigs with Maternal Antibodies without Inducing Vaccine Associated Enhanced Respiratory Disease
Control of swine influenza A virus (IAV) in the US is hindered since inactivated vaccines do not provide robust cross-protection against the multiple antigenic variants co-circulating in the field. Vaccine efficacy can be further limited when administered to young pigs that possess maternally derived immunity. We previously demonstrated a recombinant A/sw/Texas/4199-2/1998 (TX98) (H3N2) expressing a truncated NS1 protein is attenuated in swine and has potential for use as an intranasal live attenuated influenza virus (LAIV) vaccine. In the present study, we compared 1 dose of intranasal LAIV with 2 intramuscular doses of TX98 whole inactivated virus (WIV) with adjuvant in weanling pigs with and without TX98-specific maternally-derived antibodies (MDA). Pigs were subsequently challenged with wild type homologous TX98 H3N2 virus or with an antigenic variant A/sw/Colorado/23619/1999 (CO99) (H3N2). In the absence of MDA, both vaccines protected against homologous TX98 and heterologous CO99 shedding, although the LAIV elicited lower hemagglutination inhibiting (HI) antibody titers in serum. The efficacy of both vaccines was reduced by the presence of MDA; however, WIV vaccination of MDA-positive pigs led to dramatically enhanced pneumonia following heterologous challenge, a phenomenon known as vaccine-associated enhanced respiratory disease (VAERD). A single-dose of LAIV to MDA-positive pigs still provided partial protection from CO99 and may be a safer vaccine for young pigs in field conditions where dams are routinely vaccinated and diverse IAV strains are in circulation. These results have implications not only to pigs but to other influenza virus host species.
Global Transmission of Influenza Viruses from Humans to Swine
To determine the extent to which influenza viruses jump between humans and swine hosts, we undertook a large-scale phylogenetic analysis of pandemic A/H1N1/09 (H1N1pdm09) influenza virus genome sequence data. From this we identified at least 49 human-to-swine transmission events that occurred globally during 2009-2011, thereby highlighting the ability of the H1N1pdm09 virus to repeatedly transmit from humans to swine, even following adaptive evolution in humans. Similarly, we identified at least 23 separate introductions of human seasonal (non-pandemic) H1 and H3 influenza viruses into swine globally since 1990. Overall, these results reveal the frequency with which swine are exposed to human influenza viruses, indicate that humans make a substantial contribution to the genetic diversity of influenza viruses in swine, and emphasize the need to improve biosecurity measures at the human-swine interface, including influenza vaccination of swine workers.