AASV Annual Meeting Sets Records Again

March 14, 2018 — 

The American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) held its 49th annual meeting in San Diego, California, March 3 - 6, 2018. The meeting, held at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, drew record attendance of 1220 total attendees, including 765 paid registrants (also a record) and 102 veterinary students from 22 colleges of veterinary medicine. The conference participants hailed from 30 countries, with 295 attendees (24% of the total) from outside the United States, including 60 from Canada and 79 from Mexico. The total attendance also included a record 305 exhibit representatives from 101 companies and organizations (another all-time high).

The meeting participants enjoyed the opportunity to attend numerous educational sessions, including 10 pre-conference seminars, two general sessions, three break-out sessions, research topics, three industrial partners sessions, the Student Seminar, and a poster session featuring 89 posters. In addition, 14 AASV committees met during the annual meeting. The Monitoring and Surveillance 2.0 seminar on Saturday afternoon was extremely popular (166 registrants), while the Antibiotic Alternatives seminar garnered the most attention of the seminars on Sunday morning (134 registrants). On Sunday afternoon, the participation by companies in the Industrial Partners sessions was extremely high this year - 3 sessions running every 15 minutes from 1:00 through 5:45 pm with no breaks.

Dr Lisa Tokach coordinated a social media competition at this year's meeting to try to raise social awareness of our meeting in a positive way. Fourteen competitors competed across multiple social media platforms. An esteemed panel of judges, consisting of Drs. Katie Woodard, Brent Pepin, and Trevor Martin judged the contestants based on 5 categories: content of message, professionalism, creativity, interest level, and positive impact on AASV. The winners of the competition were: Rachel Schulte (1st place, $250), Chris Rademacher (2nd place, $100) and Shamus Brown (3rd place, $50).

Dr Bill DuBois opened the Monday general session with the Howard Dunne Memorial Lecture. His presentation, entitled "How geography, culture, and socioeconomic status affect global animal protein consumption: Applications for swine veterinarians" recognized that swine veterinarians are already involved in a global, multi-cultural industry. Dr DuBois explored the global impact veterinarians can have on livestock production and the opportunities this access affords AASV members to better understand the cultural influences of the food choices in those cultures.

Dr Rodger Main presented the Alex Hogg Memorial Lecture entitled "This is our time, the choices are yours." His presentation explored the changes that have occurred in the U.S. pork industry and swine veterinary profession over the last 40 years. He discusses the importance of animal health and the impact of disease on production, trade and animal well-being and the role of the veterinarian in modern pork production.

The Monday afternoon concurrent sessions allowed attendees the opportunity to consider advances in technology and management practices, emerging disease issues, and management of endemic diseases. The Tuesday general session addressed the issues associated with antibiotic use in swine medicine.

Dr John Waddell presented the Heritage Award to Dr Conrad Schmidt during the luncheon on Monday. This is only the fourth time the Heritage Award has been presented. The AASV Awards Reception was held Monday night, followed by the AASV Foundation's annual fund-raising auction. Dr Michelle Sprague, 2014 AASV president and chair of the 2018 Awards Selection Committee, introduced the recipients of the Swine Practitioner of the Year Award (Dr Mary Battrell), the Howard Dunne Memorial Award (Dr Dick Hesse), the Meritorious Service Award (Dr Liz Wagstrom), the Young Swine Veterinarian of the Year Award (Dr Adam Schelkopf), and the Technical Services/Allied Industry Veterinarian of the Year Award (Dr Gene Nemechek). To read more about the awardees, click here.