The 42nd annual meeting of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) drew 930 attendees from 22 countries and a record 73 technical tables of commercial companies.
The conference on “Evidence-Based Practice: How do we get there” featured 24 hours of educational sessions, 15 student presentations and 54 poster presentations.
The AASV Foundation raised $64,282 to support student travel stipends, research projects, scholarships, student externships, summer internships, awards and other efforts to enhance swine veterinary medicine.
The AASV Foundation awarded $25,000 in scholarships to 15 veterinary students, with the top $5,000 scholarship presented to Alexander Primus, University of Minnesota, for his presentation “Identification of a new potentially virulent Brachyspira species affecting swine” sponsored by Alpharma Animal Health.
The AASV Foundation named Alex Ramirez, DVM, and Jeremy Pittman, DVM, recipients of the AASV Foundation Hogg Scholarship, named for Alex Hogg, DVM, who was a leader in swine medicine and taught for years at the University of Nebraska.
Ramirez is an assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine at Iowa State University, and Pittman is staff veterinarian for Murphy-Brown’s Waverly Division in Waverly, VA, and an adjunct clinical faculty member at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Both receive $5,000 scholarships.
Fifteen veterinary students competing in the Veterinary Student Poster Competition received awards totaling $4,000 sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. The top award of $500 went to Evan Van Beusekom, University of Minnesota, for “Euthanasia by electrocution in 11- to 33-lb. nursery pigs.”