Call for papers – AASV 2015 Student Seminar

Veterinary Student Scholarships

The American Association of Swine Veterinarians announces an opportunity for veterinary students to make a scientific presentation during the Student Seminar at the AASV Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday, March 1, 2015. Interested students are invited to submit a one-page abstract of a research paper, clinical case study, or literature review for consideration. The submitting student must be a current (2014-2015) student member of the AASV at the time of submission, and must not have graduated from veterinary school prior to March 1, 2015. Submissions are limited to one (1) abstract per student.

Abstracts and supplementary materials must be received by Dr Alex Ramirez (alex@aasv.org) by 11:59 pm Central Daylight Time on Monday, September 22, 2014 (firm deadline). All material must be submitted electronically. Late abstracts will not be considered. You should receive an e-mail confirming the receipt of your submission. If you do not receive this confirmation e-mail, you must contact Dr Alex Ramirez (alex@aasv.org) by Wednesday September 24, 2014, with supporting evidence that the submission was made in time; otherwise, your submission will not be considered for judging. The abstracts will be reviewed by an unbiased, professional panel consisting of a private practitioner, an academician, and an industry veterinarian. Fifteen abstracts will be selected for oral presentation in the Student Seminar at the AASV Annual Meeting. Students whose papers are selected will be notified by October 15, 2014, and will be expected to provide the complete paper or abstract, reformatted for publication, by November 17, 2014.

To help defray the costs of attending the AASV meeting, Zoetis provides a $750 honorarium to the student presenter of each paper selected for oral presentation during the Student Seminar.

Each veterinary student whose paper is selected for oral presentation also competes for one of several veterinary student scholarships awarded through the AASV Foundation. The oral presentations will be judged to determine the amount of the scholarship awarded. Zoetis funds a $5000 scholarship for the student whose paper, oral presentation, and supporting information are judged best overall. Elanco Animal Health provides $20,000 in additional funding, enabling the AASV Foundation to award $2500 each for 2nd through 5th place, $1500 each for 6th through 10th place, and $500 each for 11th through 15th place.

Abstracts that are not selected for oral presentation in the Student Seminar will be considered for participation in a poster session at the annual meeting. Zoetis and the AASV fund a stipend of $250 for each student who is selected and participates in the poster presentation. In addition, the presenters of the top 15 poster abstracts compete for awards ranging from $200 to $500 in the Veterinary Student Poster Competition.

Complete information for preparing and submitting abstracts is available on the AASV Web site at www.aasv.org/annmtg/2015/studentseminar.htm. Please note: the rules for submission should be followed carefully. For more information, contact the AASV office (Tel: 515-465-5255; Fax: 515-465-3832; E-mail: aasv@aasv.org).

Call for submissions – Industrial Partners

The American Association of Swine Veterinarians invites submissions for the Industrial Partners portion of the 46th AASV Annual Meeting, to be held February 28-March 3, 2015, in Orlando, Florida. This is an opportunity for commercial companies to make brief presentations of a technical, educational nature to members of the AASV.

As in the past, the oral sessions will consist of a series of 15-minute presentations scheduled from 1:00 to 5:00 pm on Sunday, March 1. A poster session will take place on the same day. Poster authors will be required to be stationed with their posters from 12:00 noon until 1:00 pm, and the posters will remain on display throughout the afternoon and the following day for viewing by meeting attendees.

Restricted program space necessitates a limit on the number of presentations per company. Companies that are members of the Journal of Swine Health and Production Industry Support Council (listed on the back cover of each issue of the journal) may submit two topics for oral presentation. Sponsors of the AASV e-Letter may submit an additional topic for oral presentation. All other companies may submit one topic for oral presentation. Each company may also submit one topic for poster presentation (poster topics may not duplicate oral presentations). All topics must represent information not previously presented at the AASV Annual Meeting or published in the meeting proceedings.

Topic titles, a brief description of the presentation content, and presenter information (name, address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address) must be received in the AASV office by October 1, 2014. Please identify whether the submission is intended for oral or poster presentation. Send submissions via mail, fax, or e-mail to Commercial Sessions, AASV, 830 26th Street, Perry, IA 50220-2328; Fax: 515-465-3832; E-mail: aasv@aasv.org.

Authors will be notified of their acceptance by October 15, 2014, and must submit the paper for publication in the meeting proceedings by November 17, 2014. All presentations – oral and poster – will be published in the proceedings of the meeting. Papers for poster presentations are limited to one page of text plus one table or figure. Papers for oral presentations may be up to five pages in length (including tables and figures), when formatted according to the guidelines provided to authors upon acceptance of their presentations. Companies failing to submit papers in a timely manner will not be eligible for future participation in these sessions.

Interstate movement restrictions

A number of states have enacted additional movement restrictions on the importation of swine, based on their exposure to porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). To date, we have received notification from Arkansas, Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Washington requiring permits, certificates of veterinary inspection, or additional statements of declaration regarding the PEDV status of the herd of origin prior to shipping the animals. These changes are posted on the AASV website (http://www.aasv.org/pedv/StateImportPEDRequirements140507.pdf). While we make every effort to maintain the accuracy of this information and keep the list updated, always verify the import requirements with the state animal-health official before shipping the animals.

Pain mitigation

The interest in responding to concerns about finding a way to provide swine farmers with a mechanism to mitigate pain associated with castration and tail docking has led veterinarians to consider the use of analgesics. The discussion has revolved around the lack of approved analgesic or anesthetic products for use in swine. Lidocaine is one product that has been considered. It is our opinion at AASV that, although not approved for use in swine, lidocaine is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and therefore could be used in an extra-label manner if the conditions of the Animal Medicinal Drug Use Clarification Act (AMDUCA) can be met. AMDUCA requires the existence of a valid Veterinary-Client-Patient Relationship; extra-label use limited to circumstances when a threat is posed to the health of an animal or when failure to treat results in suffering or death; the lack of an approved product to address the issue; the availability of an approved animal or human drug that would address the issue; the product be administered on the direction of a licensed veterinarian, appropriately labeled and assigned an extended withdrawal time to avoid violative residues.

We received a letter from the FDA confirming that the extra-label use of FDA-approved drugs is acceptable under the regulations set forth in AMDUCA to alleviate pain associated with surgical procedures such as castration and tail docking. This letter was in response to a request to the agency from Dr Liz Wagstrom, Chief Veterinarian, National Pork Producers Council.

In addition, Dr Craig Lewis from FDA gave a presentation during the Animal Care Committee meeting at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture Annual meeting on the legal use of drugs in food animals for pain mitigation. We have posted his presentation on the AASV Web site for your reference. Dr Lewis identifies common products associated with pain mitigation and discusses whether or not they could be used legally for pain control in food-producing animals.

Lidocaine is commonly suggested as a drug that possibly could be used in an extra-label manner to alleviate pain resulting from surgical procedures in food-producing animals. The FDA agrees, but notes that lidocaine is NOT approved for veterinary use. Therefore, only the lidocaine approved for human use can legally be prescribed under AMDUCA for extra-label use in food animals.

FDA announces voluntary withdrawal of 16 antimicrobials for use in food-producing animals

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that five drug sponsors holding animal-drug applications affected by Guidance For Industry (GFI) #213 have requested that FDA withdraw approval of a collective 19 animal-drug applications because the products are no longer manufactured or marketed. Of these 19 applications, 16 are antimicrobials affected by GFI #213. The guidance outlines FDA’s plan to help curb antimicrobial resistance by, among other things, phasing out the use of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing animals for production purposes. A complete list of products and manufacturers is posted on the agency’s Web site. Source: http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/NewsEvents/CVMUpdates/ucm392461.htm?source=govdelivery&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery.

AASV Practice Tips now online

Each year at the AASV Annual Meeting, the Practice Tips pre-conference seminar shares useful information to benefit the “boots-in-the-barn” veterinarian. While there are no formal proceedings papers for these practice tips, the participants have made their presentation slides available as part of the Swine Information Library. If your membership in the AASV is current, you can access them here: https://www.aasv.org/library/swineinfo/series_index.php?id=12#106. Presentations include the following:

•  You want me to do what?? The crazy world known as the show pig industry! – Amy Woods

•  Motivating employees through purpose discovery – Larry Coleman

•  More than just a tip – Joshua Barker

•  Shipping samples: Regulations and compliance inspections – Melissa Hensch

•  Investigations, illusions and integrity: What we learned from an FDA audit – Carissa Odland (2nd place)

•  Tracheobronchial mucus collection: A novel way for herd detection of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae – Kimberly Crawford (3rd place)

•  Communicating to incite action – Aaron Lower

•  Feedback tips and tricks – Rebecca Robbins

•  Let’s take another look at that pig – Joe Rudolphi

•  A veterinarian’s options for inactivating PEDV in hog trailers – Paul Thomas

•  Ovugel use in timed breeding – Todd Price

•  PEDV survival 101 – Matthew Turner (1st place)