AASV News
Alternate Student Delegate selected for AASV Board

The AASV Student Recruitment Committee is pleased to announce the selection of Jordan Gebhardt (Kansas State University, 2019) as the incoming Alternate Student Delegate to the AASV Board of Directors.

Gebhardt grew up on a small family farm in Cedar Springs, Michigan, where he gained experience with feeder cattle and swine and assisted in the operations of his family’s commercial feed mill. He entered a combined DVM-PhD program at Kansas State University and is currently progressing through his second year of the veterinary curriculum.

He has been involved in numerous organizations directly involved with promotion of agriculture and professional development of agriculture’s future leaders. These organizations have included Alpha Gamma Rho, Michigan State University Block & Bridle Club, K-State CVM Class of 2019 Executive Board, as well as the K-State SCAASV. As president of the Kansas State University Swine Club, he directed an effort to provide interaction with the swine nutrition graduate students and AASV swine club students by holding joint educational activities, including wet labs at the K-State swine farm, a speaker series involving many industry leaders from throughout the United States, and social activities. He has won the American Society of Animal Science student paper competitions as both an undergraduate and as a PhD student.

Gebhardt notes that he “decided to become involved with and take on leadership roles in these organizations for multiple reasons, but most importantly to be an active part in creating opportunities and developing the passion in others for what I am most passionate about, agriculture.”

Gebhardt feels the alternate delegate position with AASV will be an excellent opportunity to further his involvement within the veterinary community, and, more importantly, will be an opportunity to continue promoting the industry and profession.

Gebhardt assumes his duties as Alternate Student Delegate during the 2017 AASV Annual Meeting in Denver. The current alternate delegate, Brent Sexton, will assume the delegate position currently held by Emily Mahan-Riggs who will rotate off the board. Brent and Jordan 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 Jordan to the AASV Board of Directors and thanking Emily for her service!

Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) common form

The Food and Drug Administration has issued Guidance Document #233 (GFI #233, http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ AnimalVeterinary/GuidanceCompliance Enforcement/GuidanceforIndustry/UCM474640.pdf) to describe a suggested common format for VFD forms. Drug sponsors are required to provide a VFD form to FDA as part of the VFD drug approval process and make this form available for veterinary use following approval. Veterinarians, however, are not required to use the form provided by the drug sponsor and may create a form of their choosing as long as it contains the required information. Guidance document #233 also provides guidance concerning the elements that must be included on the VFD and the elements that may be included on the VFD. In addition, Guidance document #233 provides examples of a suggested VFD format.

Iowa State University and AASV publish VFD FAQs

The Iowa State University’s Iowa Pork Industry Center (IPIC) held several Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) trainings throughout the state to prepare pork producers for the implementation of the revised VFD regulations scheduled for implementation on January 1, 2017. In addition, Dr Chris Rademacher worked with AASV and National Pork Board to collect a series of VFD questions which he posed to the US Food and Drug Administration. He has posted the agency’s official responses to those questions on the IPIC Web site (https://www.ipic.iastate.edu/info/VFDfaq.pdf). The AASV has also included these responses on the association’s VFD FAQ web page (https://www.aasv.org/documents/vfdfaq.php) as well. Visit these resources if you have a question regarding the VFD. Chances are someone has already asked a similar question. If you still have questions, you can pose those directly to FDA at AskCVM@fda.hhs.gov and receive an official response.