AASV Foundation Announces Research Funding for 2016

March 18, 2016 — 

The AASV Foundation selected four research proposals to receive a total of $60,000 in funding for 2016. The research will study a wide range of topics important to swine veterinarians, including emerging diseases, disease introduction into the U.S. swine herd, vaccine efficacy, and biosecurity. Dr Daryl Olsen, chairman of the AASV Foundation, announced the proposals selected for funding during the foundation’s annual luncheon on February 29 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

A grant of $17,500 was awarded to Dr Steve Tousignant at Swine Vet Center to fund a proposal designed to determine the sero-prevalence of Seneca Valley A virus in a convenience sample collected from U.S. sow farms. The research will also explore risk factors associated with the presence of the SVA virus in sow farms.

Dr Scott Dee at Pipestone Veterinary Services was awarded a grant of $15,000 to assist with funding for a study to evaluate a shipping model using viral proxies to investigate whether foreign animal diseases could survive in feed ingredients shipped from Asia to the US. The study will also evaluate whether two chemical mitigants could reduce the risk of pathogen survival.

The foundation allocated $15,000 to fund a proposal submitted by Dr Mike Murtaugh at the University of Minnesota toward designing a challenge-free model to predict vaccine efficacy.

The fourth research grant totaling $12,500 was awarded to Dr Derald Holtkamp at Iowa State University to support a study to compare the effectiveness of standard entry versus bench entry biosecurity protocols in a commercial swine facility.

Dr Nathan Winkelman chaired the scientific subcommittee responsible for reviewing and scoring the proposals received for consideration, and he joins the foundation in thanking Drs Peggy Anne Hawkins, John Baker, Tim Blackwell, Jerry Torrison, and Tom Gillespie for their service on the subcommittee. The subcommittee considered a record 17 proposals.

An overview of past and current projects funded by the foundation is available at https://www.aasv.org/foundation/research.htm. The foundation will issue its next call for research proposals in the fall of 2016.