An AVMA report says recommendations by a prominent critic of industrial animal agriculture are unscientific and can actually threaten human health.

The document, available at www.avma.org/PEWresponse, questions the validity of the content and review process for a report published in 2008 by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production on the sustainability of the nation’s food animal production systems. The Pew Commission report is available at www.ncifap.org.

The AVMA contends the report is not consistent with the well-documented, science-based reports that the Association has come to expect from the Pew Commission. The AVMA response is being widely distributed, and members of Congress are among those who will receive copies.

The AVMA document, “The American Veterinary Medical Association Response to the Report of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production,” was a product of members of eight volunteer leadership councils and committees and three staff divisions. The Pew Commission report, “Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America,” was a two-year project of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. David R. Smith, a professor and the extension dairy and beef veterinarian for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said it is important for the AVMA to provide veterinarians’ perspective on the Pew Commission’s conclusions. He said authors of the Pew report have been trying to raise awareness about their recommendations, particularly among members of Congress involved in antimicrobial use legislation.

Dr. Smith is one of the AVMA volunteer leaders who read the Pew report, evaluated the commission’s recommendations, and crafted the AVMA’s response. He hopes the AVMA report provides people with a critical look at the Pew Commission’s recommendations and “whether acting on those recommendations would make the world a better place.”

“Largely, our conclusions were that the Pew report was a superficial look at animal agriculture, and the recommendations lacked deep understanding of the issues involved,” Dr. Smith said.

The Pew Commission launched an advertising campaign this summer to influence decision makers in Washington, D.C., and it has included advertisements in the city’s Metro stations that say antimicrobials are being misused in animal agriculture.

Dr. W. Ron DeHaven, AVMA CEO, wrote a letter to members of Congress that states the Pew advertisements are misleading and scientifically untrue. John W. Carlin, Pew Commission chairman, and Dr. Michael J. Blackwell, vice chairman, replied to Dr. DeHaven in a letter that defends the group’s process and accuses the AVMA of failing to show leadership and of being inappropriately influenced by industry.

The AVMA report states it is imperative to base decisions on evidence and research grounded in the principles of scientific inquiry, while the Pew report is based on what is possible, rather than probable or actual. The AVMA report does not dispute all the Pew Commission’s recommendations, but it urges close scrutiny of those suggestions.

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Dr. Kurt J. Matushek is the new AVMA editor-in-chief and director of the Publications Division.

AVMA CEO W. Ron DeHaven announced Aug. 10 that Dr. Matushek had been chosen to succeed the late Dr. Janis H. Audin as head of the Association’s journals and the division. Dr. Matushek was serving as interim editor-in-chief since March of this year.

“As a former practitioner and board-certified veterinary surgeon, Dr. Matushek will ensure that we continue to bring the practitioners’ perspective to JAVMA,” Dr. DeHaven commented. “Combined with his years of service to AVMA as an associate editor, he will also make sure that both JAVMA and AJVR maintain their international reputation as the premier veterinary journals.”

During his 16 years with the AVMA, Dr. Matushek has not only gained an extensive knowledge of AVMA journal policies and style, but also helped develop and shape them.

Dr. Matushek joined the AVMA Publications staff as an assistant editor in 1992 and was promoted to associate editor five years later. Highlights of his AVMA tenure include developing and implementing the format for abstracts published in the JAVMA and AJVR and overseeing the writing of the original version of the AVMA style guide.

Dr. Matushek wrote or revised many of the journals’ documents, such as the copyright transfer form, statement of prior publication, procedures for manuscript publication, and portions of the instructions for authors. He led the search for an online manuscript tracking system for the journals and recently oversaw a major system upgrade. Dr. Matushek was also part of the team that developed the AVMA online journals Web site.

“Veterinary Medicine and the Law” and “Diagnostic Imaging in Veterinary Dental Practice” are two of the JAVMA features Dr. Matushek has been involved in developing over the years.

In addition to his editing responsibilities with the journals, Dr. Matushek has been a teller during the annual sessions of the AVMA House of Delegates, staff support to the Executive Board’s Reference Committee B, and a co-editor of the AVMA convention newspapers.

“I am excited by this tremendous opportunity,” Dr. Matushek said about his new role at the AVMA. “The AVMA journals are among the most prestigious and widely known veterinary journals in the world, and I look forward to building on that success.”

After earning his DVM degree from the University of Illinois in 1983, Dr. Matushek studied the use of external skeletal fixation in dogs at the Ontario Veterinary College, where he earned a master’s degree.

Dr. Matushek then spent a year in general small animal practice near Chicago before returning to Ontario to complete an internship in small animal medicine and surgery. Afterward, he finished a small animal surgical residency in Madison, Wis., followed by a two-year stint as staff surgeon at a small animal practice in Michigan. During this time, Dr. Matushek was certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons.

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The AVMA and the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges are inviting veterinarians, educators, researchers, students, and others interested in animal welfare education and research to attend “Swimming with the Tide—Animal Welfare in Veterinary Medical Education and Research,” Nov. 9-11 at Michigan State University.

The symposium will explore animal welfare as an evolving discipline and how to best educate veterinarians to be effective decision-makers and advocates.

The deadline for advance registration is Sept. 1.

The event will include a poster session Nov. 9. Poster entries must clearly relate to the main themes of animal welfare, veterinary science and education, research, or advocacy. Poster abstracts should be submitted by Sept. 1 to Dr. Emily Patterson-Kane of the AVMA in a common file format such as .doc or .rtf or within the body of the e-mail.

For registration information or to learn more about the symposium or poster submission guidelines, go to www.avma.org/awsymposium/.

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This fall when the AVMA relaunches its online continuing education site, users will discover a more compelling speaker format and technical upgrades designed to enhance their CE experience.

AVMA Ed will feature 28 hours of continuing education from this year’s AVMA convention when the new format is introduced in November on the site, www.avma.org/avmaed/. A combination of user feedback and planned upgrades is behind substantial upcoming changes to the online continuing education site.

Previous AVMA convention content was recorded as speakers delivered their educational programs to convention audiences, but content from the Seattle convention was captured in studio recording sessions. A new delivery platform for AVMA Ed is intended to improve video loading times. Changes in the interface will allow users to adjust the screen size of videos and quickly move between segments of educational programs.

Veterinarians have used the online program to earn more than 1,200 hours of continuing education credits since its launch Dec. 1, 2008. Dr. Althea Jones, AVMA online professional services editor, said AVMA Ed draws content from trusted sources: the Journal of the AVMA and the AVMA convention.

“The quality of content, ease of use, and excellent value make AVMA Ed hard to beat as a CE source for our members,” Dr. Jones said.

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The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report July 30 criticizing the Department of Homeland Security’s analyses that concluded researchers can study foot-and-mouth disease as safely on the mainland as on Plum Island.

The DHS recently chose Manhattan, Kan., as the site for a new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility to replace the half-century-old Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York, the only U.S. facility where researchers study live FMD virus (see JAVMA, Jan. 1, 2009, page 11).

According to the GAO report, DHS analyses did not adequately characterize and differentiate the relative risks of a release of FMD virus at Plum Island and five potential mainland sites for the NBAF.

The GAO agreed with the DHS that modern containment technology has reduced the risk of an accidental pathogen release and that the safety of high-containment laboratories has improved, but the report noted evidence showing that accidents continue to result from human error or operational failure in facilities.

“Thus, as DHS has acknowledged, the risk of release of an agent from a modern HCL is not zero, and Plum Island offers a unique advantage—with its water barrier and absence of animals—over the mainland,” according to the GAO report.

The DHS does not plan to re-open the site-selection process for the NBAF on the basis of the GAO report, according to a response from DHS with input from the Department of Agriculture—the latter of which conducts much of the research on Plum Island. The DHS noted that five U.S. laboratories in populous areas operate at the highest biosafety level, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and none has exposed the public to a pathogen. The department added that constructing the NBAF on the mainland also offers advantages.

“Conducting foreign animal, emerging, and zoonotic disease research on the mainland in proximity to nationally recognized research capabilities, programs, and research relevant to the NBAF mission requirements further enhances the nation’s capability to protect agriculture, food systems, and public health,” according to the DHS.

The AVMA has supported upgrading laboratories where the USDA studies animal health. In March 2006, the AVMA Executive Board approved a policy stating that the Association supports the concept that the DHS should not restrict potential locations for the NBAF to Plum Island.

The GAO report is available at www.gao.gov by searching for the report number, GAO-09-747. The DHS response to the GAO report is at www.dhs.gov/nbaf.

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Teva Animal Health halted manufacture of veterinary drugs earlier this month in response to an injunction filed by the Food and Drug Administration, which says the company failed to adhere to current good manufacturing practices.

Teva is a major manufacturer of generic animal drugs and also makes products under the DVM Pharmaceuticals brand name. The FDA reported finding violations of good manufacturing practices at Teva’s facilities in St. Joseph, Mo., during inspections between 2007 and 2009. On July 31, the agency filed a consent decree of permanent injunction to halt Teva’s operations.

Under the terms of the consent decree, Teva cannot resume manufacturing veterinary drugs until the FDA deems that the company has established adequate facilities and procedures. As of press time, the company remained shut down.

According to an April report by FDA inspectors, Teva’s quality control unit failed in its responsibility and authority to monitor and implement quality control systems. Among the findings were that Teva did not reject products that failed to meet standards, did not extend investigations of discrepancies to other lots of the same product, and did not train employees adequately in good manufacturing practices.

In the event of future violations, the consent decree subjects Teva to fines of $20,000 for each day the company fails to comply with the decree and an additional $25,000 for each shipment of veterinary drugs in violation of the decree, up to $7.5 million per year.

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More veterinary graduates are choosing advanced education even as student debt continues to increase, according to the “Facts & Figures” feature in the Sept. 1 JAVMA—“Employment, starting salaries, and educational indebtedness of year-2009 graduates of US veterinary medical colleges.” In 2009, 43.5 percent of veterinary graduates chose advanced education, while mean debt among students with debt increased to $129,976.

A scientific report in the Sept. 1 JAVMA summarizes research that found a high prevalence of concurrent colonization with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in people and pets living in the same household, suggesting interspecies transmission of MRSA. Another scientific report analyzes the results of a California survey of cattle movements, concluding that cattle movements are more frequent than a smaller study had suggested—and therefore the risk of spreading foot-and-mouth disease is higher.

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