The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) and American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) have been jointly sponsoring a webinar series on swine health «industry chatter» topics. These webinars bring together subject matter experts to discuss current issues facing US pork producers and practitioners. Past topics have included viral myelitis, tracheitis, coccidiosis, and lameness/arthritis. Conducted by the Iowa State University Swine Medicine Education Center (SMEC), webinar participants include practitioners with first-hand experience with the topic being discussed, diagnosticians, and other experts. Completed webinars are posted online for convenient access at aasv.org/members/only/video/webinars/.
Your input is needed to guide SHIC and AASV on what topics to address next. Are you seeing new occurrences of “old” diseases that are difficult to manage? Are you facing challenging diagnoses or syndromes? Do you need more information and points of view related to on-going health issues in your barns? Reach out to SHIC Executive Director Dr Paul Sundberg at psundberg@swinehealth.org or AASV Director of Public Health and Communications Dr Abbey Canon at canon@aasv.org with your webinar recommendations.
AASV’s virtual meeting brings new – and continuing – opportunities
The 2021 AASV Annual Meeting is sure to go down in the history books, if for no other reason than it is the association’s first-ever virtual conference. While the virtual format doesn’t provide the opportunity to greet one other face-to-face in the hallway or share a meal together in the hotel restaurant, it DOES offer some new benefits that aren’t possible when meeting in person.
CE online until April 30th
For starters, even though the meeting dates may have come and gone by the time you read this, the meeting is not over – and it will not be over until April 30th. Veterinarians can continue to register after March 2nd to access ALL the conference presentations, posters, and proceedings: up to 40 hours of continuing education, and even more if you add the preconference seminars.
While some features, such as live chat with speakers and live meetings with exhibitors, will not be available after the conference dates, the meeting site content will remain online for all registered attendees to access until April 30th. Register at http://ecom.aasv.org/annmtg.
Seminar deals
Do you often have trouble deciding which preconference seminars to attend? No problem! Since the presentations stay online until April 30th, you don’t have to choose one seminar and miss out on another. Plus, as a benefit of this year’s virtual conference, registrants gain access to five seminars (20 hours of continuing education) for the price of one – or, if you register for both Saturday and Sunday, ten seminars for the price of two. Your only decision is which talks to watch during the scheduled presentation time when the speakers are available for live Q&A chat, and which to watch later.
Live Q&A
If you ARE able to participate in the conference on the scheduled dates (February 27 – March 2), you will appreciate the opportunity to ask questions of the speakers while you’re watching their prerecorded presentations. The speakers will answer questions in the live chat box during their scheduled presentation time. No need to wait until the talk is over to ask your question and get the answer.
Who is attending?
Want to find out if someone you know is at the meeting? It only takes a few moments to do a quick search of the attendee directory to find the answer. Click the “Connect” button next to their name to request a meeting and supply your Zoom meeting info.
Tech Tables
The virtual Tech Tables exhibit offers the perfect no-pressure opportunity to explore the products and services offered by industry partners. Download product information or watch the company’s video overview. If you want to learn more, pop into the live Zoom meeting room to visit with a sales rep, or just click a button to have information emailed to you. Easy peasy!
Of course, you do not have to be reminded that there are no travel expenses or hotel bills associated with a virtual meeting. No worries about bad weather, flight delays, what to pack, or what to wear. And no masks required. Regardless of what anyone says, the 2021 AASV Annual Meeting promises to be the best virtual meeting we have ever had!
Alternate Student Delegate selected for AASV Board
The AASV Student Recruitment Committee is pleased to announce the selection of Sydney Simmons, a second-year veterinary student at North Carolina State University (NCSU), as the incoming Alternate Student Delegate to the AASV Board of Directors.
A native of North Carolina, Sydney recognized her excitement for swine production and animal agriculture early on. Her very first summer job as a sow farm employee encouraged her to seek more opportunities in swine production. She spent another summer in a rotating internship touring feed mills, visiting diagnostic laboratories, and spending time at a boar stud. During that internship, Sydney worked directly under swine veterinarians and alongside a first-year veterinary student intern.
Sydney’s previous experiences, including the time she spent with swine veterinarian mentors, convinced her to pursue a career in swine veterinary medicine. After her first year of veterinary school, Sydney participated in the Swine Veterinary Internship Program as an intern at the Swine Vet Center in St. Peter, Minnesota. She will present her research in electrostatic fogging methods in the AASV Student Poster Competition at the 2021 AASV Annual Meeting.
No stranger to AASV leadership, Sydney has served as the NCSU Student Chapter of the AASV first-year representative and the swine wet-lab coordinator. She anticipates career-long participation in the AASV.
Sydney is driven by a passion to educate consumers and colleagues and a life-long dedication to animal agriculture. She is eager to engage with AASV member students and veterinarians as Alternate Student Delegate.
Enthusiastically, Sydney said, “I am very excited for the opportunity to work with the AASV for the next two years. I am eager to meet and work alongside so many other students, veterinarians, and future colleagues!”
Simmons will assume her duties as Alternate Student Delegate during the 2021 AASV Annual Meeting. The current alternate delegate, Amanda Anderson (Iowa State, 2022), will assume the delegate position currently held by Jamie Madigan (NCSU, 2021), who will rotate off the board. Amanda and Sydney will represent student interests within AASV as non-voting members of the Board of Directors and the Student Recruitment Committee. Please join us in welcoming Sydney to the AASV Board of Directors and thanking Jamie for her service!
AASV proceedings online
The proceedings of the 2021 AASV Annual Meeting are available for members to download at aasv.org/annmtg/proceedings. Current 2021 dues-paid status is required to access the files.
As in the past, the proceedings are available in the following formats:
- The “big book” of all the regular session papers in a single PDF file with a linked table of contents
- Seminar booklets: a PDF collection of the papers for each seminar
- An individual paper for each presentation is available in the Swine Information Library: aasv.org/library/swineinfo/
You will be prompted for your AASV website username and password to access the files. If you have forgotten your password, use the “Reset Password” link in the upper right of the AASV website (www.aasv.org) or contact the AASV office for assistance.