The AASV Foundation is pleased to announce that Merck Animal Health has doubled its support for the AASVF-Merck Veterinary Student Scholarship Program, enabling the foundation to award ten $5000 scholarships to sophomore and junior veterinary students in 2018. Now in its third year, the program seeks to identify future swine veterinarians and assist with their educational expenses. Applications are due December 31, 2017 for scholarships that will be announced at the 2018 AASV Annual Meeting.
Monthly Archives: October 2017
Position Announcement: Swine Respiratory Disease Specialist
Zoetis seeks a veterinarian to support porcine circovirus (PCV) and Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (M. hyo) biological products and performance validation in the commercial swine industry in the U.S. This position primarily supports the Pork Technical Services team and customers as a subject matter expert in PCV and M. hyo diagnostics, prevention, treatment and control. This position has key face-to-face interaction with customers (internally and externally) to communicate the technical and economic rationale of PCV and M. hyo control strategies, vaccination, and vaccination programming. This position will lead field commercial trials with customers and provide swine industry leadership in PCV and M. hyo control strategies. A 50% traveling commitment within the U.S. is expected.
Pork Producer Elected USAHA President
Ms. Barbara Determan, a pork producer from Early, IA, was installed as President of the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA) during the association’s annual meeting in San Diego, CA. She is joined on the USAHA’s 2017-2018 Executive Committee by Boyd Parr, SC, Immediate Past President; Kristin Haas, VT, President-Elect; Charles Hatcher, TN, Third Vice President; Marty Zaluski, MT, First Vice President; Paul McGraw, WI, Second Vice President; Annette Jones, CA, Treasurer. The association expressed its gratitude to Dr. David Schmitt, Iowa State Veterinarian, for completing his tenure on the Executive Committee, joining the ranks of many that have committed their time and talent to the organization.
Acord, Zack Honored at USAHA
The United States Animal Health Association (USAHA) recently wrapped up its 121st Annual Meeting in San Diego, welcoming nearly 1300 individuals from around the country and abroad to address key issues in animal health. The meeting is a joint event with the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, held each fall. Highlighting the event was the presentation of several awards during the Joint President’s Dinner, on Sunday, October 15.
ECDC, EFSA and EMA Joint Scientific Opinion on a List of Outcome Indicators as Regards Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Consumption in Humans and Food-Producing Animals
ECDC, EFSA and EMA have jointly established a list of harmonised outcome indicators to assist EU Member States in assessing their progress in reducing the use of antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in both humans and food-producing animals. The proposed indicators have been selected on the basis of data collected by Member States at the time of publication. For humans, the proposed indicators for antimicrobial consumption are: total consumption of antimicrobials (limited to antibacterials for systemic use), ratio of community consumption of certain classes of broad-spectrum to narrow-spectrum antimicrobials and consumption of selected broad-spectrum antimicrobials used in healthcare settings. The proposed indicators for AMR in humans are: meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and 3rd-generation cephalosporin-resistant Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae resistant to aminoglycosides, fluoroquinolones and 3rd-generation cephalosporins, Streptococcus pneumoniae resistant to penicillin and S. pneumoniae resistant to macrolides, and K. pneumoniae resistant to carbapenems. For food-producing animals, indicators for antimicrobial consumption include: overall sales of veterinary antimicrobials, sales of 3rd- and 4th-generation cephalosporins, sales of quinolones and sales of polymyxins. Finally, proposed indicators for AMR in food-producing animals are: full susceptibility to a predefined panel of antimicrobials in E. coli, proportion of samples containing ESBL-/AmpC-producing E. coli, resistance to three or more antimicrobial classes in E. coli and resistance to ciprofloxacin in E. coli. For all sectors, the chosen indicators, which should be reconsidered at least every 5 years, are expected to be valid tools in monitoring antimicrobial consumption and AMR. With the exception of the proposed human AMR indicators, the indicators are in general not suitable to monitor the effects of targeted interventions in a specific sector, such as in a single animal species or animal production sector. Management decisions should never be based on these indicators alone but should take into account the underlying data and their analysis. ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control), EFSA BIOHAZ Panel (European Food Safety Authority Panel on Biological Hazards) and CVMP (EMA Committee for Medicinal Products for Veterinary Use), 2017. ECDC, EFSA and EMA Joint Scientific Opinion on a list of outcome indicators as regards surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial consumption in humans and food-producing animals. EFSA Journal 2017;15(10):5017, 70 pp. Click here to read the full article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2017.5017/full
Doc Tales
October 31st is more than just Halloween this year. It’s also Dr. Steve Henry’s retirement date. When I first heard of Steve’s decision I was reminded of what Baxter Black said about a friend’s retirement: “Why, he’s in his prime. He’s too young to retire. He should suffer more anxiety, exhaustion and life-draining challenges; what’s the matter with him?” On a personal note, Steve you’ve been an inspiration and a mentor. I’ve appreciated your insight, candor and counsel. You’ve always had the best interest of the profession and the industry at heart. Best wishes on this next phase of your life.
SHIC Monitoring Bat-Sourced Coronavirus Variant in China
The bat enteric coronavirus strain HKU2, identified in Guangdong and Hong Kong in 2004 and 2006, has recently moved from bats to pigs in China, causing severe piglet diarrhea and mortality. Some specific mutations in the spike protein of the novel virus, tentatively called swine enteric alphacoronavirus (SeACoV), are presumably responsible for it being able to jump from bats to pigs. The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) has gathered information to inform the SHIC Monitoring and Analysis Working Group and help them reach a consensus for guidance about next steps.
Students Selected to Participate in AASV Poster Competition
The AASV is pleased to announce the participants in the eighth annual Veterinary Student Poster Competition, sponsored by Newport Laboratories. Based upon the scoring of abstracts submitted for the AASV Student Seminar, the top 15 abstracts of the 43 selected for poster presentation were chosen for the competition, which will be held Sunday morning, March 4, during the 2018 Annual Meeting in San Diego.
AASV Announces Student Seminar Participants for 2018
The AASV is pleased to announce the program for the Student Seminar at the 2018 AASV Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. Fifty-eight veterinary students from 17 universities submitted abstracts for consideration. A panel of six veterinarians representing private practice, industry, and academia reviewed and scored the abstracts to select 15 for oral presentation at the meeting. The panel approved all of the remaining 43 abstracts for poster presentation. Zoetis, sponsor of the Student Seminar and Poster Session, provides a $750 travel stipend to each student selected to participate in the oral session and co-sponsors a $250 stipend for each poster presenter.
FDA Releases 2015 NARMS Integrated Report
Today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, along with its National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) partners, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, released the 2015 NARMS Integrated Report. The annual report highlights antimicrobial resistance patterns in bacteria isolated from humans (by CDC), raw retail meats (by FDA), and animals at slaughter (by USDA). The report also provides information derived from whole genome sequence data about resistance genes for all Salmonella and some Campylobacter isolates. The report includes NARMS Now, a set of interactive data tools that allow users to explore the dynamics of antibiotic resistance and the genes involved. While overall resistance remains low for most human infections and there have been measurable improvements in resistance levels in some important areas, NARMS is closely monitoring a few areas of concern. [Source: FDA News, October 23, 2017]