For years, Carissa Odland, DVM, has been fascinated by antimicrobial resistance in swine and its interconnections to animal welfare and the sustainability of pork operations. A farm’s performance on these factors can be the difference between profitability and lost, but Odland says not enough is known to give producers a reliable recipe for success.
She aims to change that.
It’s that drive to learn and apply science to understand and solve problems in swine production that helped Odland earn the coveted 2022 Allen D. Leman Science in Practice Award. Odland will be honored in September at the annual Allen D. Leman Swine Conference in St. Paul, Minn.
“The key is to identify the real problems that need to be investigated,” Odland says in a release, “to ensure proper trials are conducted, and then translate the results into actions at the farm level. This requires a team effort in order to accomplish this and I have been blessed to work with amazing teams.”
For more than 20 years, this award has honored veterinarians who are leading the swine industry toward an exciting future, says Montse Torremorell, DVM, PhD, and professor in the Department of Veterinary Population Medicine at the University of Minnesota.
Zoetis is sponsoring the reception where Odland will be honored at the Leman Swine Conference, Torremorell says.
“We applaud Dr. Odland’s efforts to understand the drivers of antimicrobial resistance,” says Lucina Galina, DVM, PhD and director of pork technical services at Zoetis. “Her knowledge and expertise helped build the foundation that supports antimicrobial stewardship in pig production today.”
Odland earned a DVM in 2009 from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. She worked for 13 years at Pipestone Veterinary Services as director of animal welfare. A desire to keep learning sparked her interest to earn a Master’s degree in epidemiology focused on antimicrobial resistance in swine while working at Pipestone.
She has recently started working with the Wholestone Farms team as the manager of sustainability for the 200 farm families that own Wholestone Farms. The company, based in Fremont, Neb., is owned by more than 200 pork-producing families in seven states, and is the nation’s tenth largest pork producer.
Odland, originally from Saint Peter, Minn., now resides in rural Trent, S.D., with her husband and three kids.
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Leman Conference: Q&A with Montse Torremorell
