What Everyone Was Talking About at AASV's Annual Meeting
A variety of topics ranging from biosecurity breaches to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) kicked off conversations during the 2024 American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn., taking place Feb. 24-27. Swine veterinarians, researchers and industry experts from all over the world gathered together to learn from the past and lead into the future.
They asked hard questions of each other and of the industry in general. Why haven’t we eliminated PRRS? As an industry, are we making progress in biosecurity? Why are we young swine veterinarians leaving the industry? What are the stakes if we continue to fail to make progress?
Here’s a quick glimpse of what some of the experts had to say.
“What can we do to not become another zombie apocalypse cliché? Know the risk. Know our strengths. Know our weaknesses and have the fortitude to address them. Don’t be complacent. Be prepared. Prevention demands commitment and some investment from all players.” – Luc Dufresne, DVM, Swine Veterinary Partners, in “The Zombie Acpocalypse Approach to Biosecurity, Biocontainment and Disease Control and Elimination”
“We need next-generation traceability. We need to focus on the outcome. We need traceability that is real-time. We need accurate data. It needs to be easy and achievable with existing technology.” – Joel Nerem, DVM, Pipestone, in the Howard Dunne Memorial Lecture, “Swine Veterinarians: Who Are We and Where Are We Going?”
“Did the state of California accomplish its goals with Proposition 12? Did it improve welfare and sustainability? I think there are some real questions about if that occurred. But I think the most important question is, what does the consumer want? At some point we have to give consumers what they want. They said they want Prop 12. If that’s what we’ve been given, we must make our Prop 12 systems work. We have an obligation to the pigs.” – Cara Haden, DVM, director of animal welfare at Pipestone, in “Implications of Prop 12 Compliance”
“Market access is critical. We must continue to prevent foreign animal disease. If we lose our free disease status, it will be an unbelievable game changer. Our industry will survive, but it will never be the same.” – Erin Borror, USMEF vice president of economic analysis, in “Driving Demand Worldwide: What are the economics? What can a veterinarian do?”
“To me sustainability means to leave it a little better than we found it and to stay in business.” – Dan Thomson, DVM, beef industry consultant in “Staying Alive: Protein Market Sustainability”
“The key to relationships is understanding people. We raise pigs, but we are still in the people business.” – Chris Rademacher, DVM, in the Alex Hogg Memorial Lecture, “Past, Present and Future Challenges for the Swine Industry Profession”
“Successful disease eradication takes consensus, leadership and knowledge.” – Jeff Zimmerman, DVM, professor at Iowa State University, in “Successful Disease Eradication in the US: What Worked and Why?”
"How can we get good product on the table for the consumer? It’s a job we all need to work on together." – Grace Houston, DVM, director of veterinary services at Triumph Foods, in “Protecting the Product: A swine vet’s job isn’t done when the pig is loaded on the truck”
“We have been able to hang on at our farm in South Dakota for 140 years through a lot of challenging times. At the end of the day, our farm looks different than it did in 1884 and it will look different in 2054. But we are still there. One of the reasons we are still there is because of people like you practicing veterinary medicine. Thank you for all you do to keep the pork industry vibrant and viable.” – Bill Even, CEO of the National Pork Board in “Driving Demand: What the Pork Checkoff is Doing With Your Money and What You Need to Do”
