CRWAD honors Carmichael

The Windy City was the site of the 87th annual meeting of the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases, Dec. 3-5, 2006. Approximately 525 people attended the Chicago conference, where a total of 348 presentations were offered. A host of foreign guests representing 18 countries were also on hand.

The conference was dedicated to Dr. Leland E. "Skip" Carmichael of Ithaca, N.Y. After earning his DVM degree from the University of California-Davis in 1956, Dr. Carmichael went to work for the Veterinary Virus Research Institute—now the James A. Baker Institute for Animal Health at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Carmichael has since retired.

A diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists, Dr. Carmichael is credited with identifying canine herpesvirus, brucellosis in dogs, and canine parvovirus. He also helped develop the first vaccine for canine parvovirus.

During the 1960s, Dr. Carmichael established a laboratory for the production of a vaccine for rinderpest virus in the Republic of Mali in West Africa. In that decade, he was appointed to an endowed professorship in virology at the Baker Institute, where he served as acting director in the 1970s and again in the 1990s.

Life membership was awarded to Drs. Margaret Ewing, Stillwater, Okla.; Sidney Ewing, Stillwater, Okla.; Phillip O'Berry, Ames, Iowa; Richard Ross, Ames, Iowa; and Kim Wise, Columbia, Mo.

Officers of CRWAD for 2007 are Lynn A. Joens, PhD, Tucson, Ariz., president; Dr. Richard E. Isaacson, St. Paul, Minn., vice president; and Robert P. Ellis, PhD, Fort Collins, Colo., executive director.

The Association for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine named Dr. S. Wayne Martin recipient of the 2006 Calvin W. Schwabe Award, to honor lifetime achievement in veterinary epidemiology and preventive medicine. Dr. Martin is a graduate of the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph, where he went on to serve on the faculty from 1974 until 2006. He was the founding chair of the Department of Population Medicine.

Dr. Martin served as the secretary and chairman for the International Society of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics.

Recipients of the AVEPM student awards were as follows: Epidemiology and Animal Health Economics category: J.B. Osterstock, Texas A&M University, for "Heritability estimates and parental effects for paratuberculosis ELISA results in Texas beef cattle"; and Linda Highfield, Texas A&M University, for "The influence of different geostatistical estimation techniques on the simulated spread of foot-and-mouth disease in Southern Texas deer populations." Food and Environmental Safety category: V.P. Costantini, The Ohio State University, for "Effect of different swine waste management technologies on detection of animal enteric viruses." Poster: E. Brown, South Dakota State University, for "Investigation of European-like porcine circovirus type 2 in the U.S. swine herds."

The American Association of Veterinary Immunologists presented the Distinguished Veterinary Immunologist Award to Mark A. Jutila, PhD. He is a professor in the Department of Veterinary Molecular Biology at Montana State University. Dr. Jutila's research has led to advances in the understanding of lymphocyte immunology and the mechanisms of lymphocyte trafficking in health and disease.

In addition, Dr. Jutila's work on gamma delta T lymphocytes in the context of host-immune responses and developmental immunology is renowned worldwide.

Recipients of the AAVI student awards were as follows: First place, oral: M. de Lima, Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil, for "Serological marker candidates identified on structural and non-structural proteins of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus." Second place, oral: P.E. Almeida, Michigan State University, for "Signature gene expression of peripheral mononuclear cells and decreased serum DHEA in dairy cows with lameness." Poster, first place: M. Rinaldi, University of Milan, Italy, for "Cis-urocanic acid inhibits bovine neutrophil generation of extracellular superoxide." Poster, second place: M. Katepalli, University of Kentucky, for "The relationship between telomere length and immune function in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of young and old horses."

The American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists Award was presented to E. Cobo, University of California-Davis, for "Sensitivity and specificity of PCR and culture testing smegma samples for Tritrichomonas foetus and Campylobacter fetus venerealis in experimentally infected bulls."

Recipients of the NC-1007 Gastroenteric Diseases awards were as follows: Oral: P. Malik-Kale, Washington State University, for "Co-culture of Campylobacter jejuni with sodium deoxycholate induces virulence gene expression." Poster: Mayumi Fukuda, Iowa State University, for "Characterization of a cluster of lipoproteins regulated by CmeR in Campylobacter jejuni."

The American College of Veterinary Microbiologists presented Dr. Ian Tizard with its Distinguished Veterinary Microbiologist Award. Dr. Tizard received his BVMS degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1965 and has been a faculty member at Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences since 1982. He is currently the Richard M. Schubot Professor of Exotic Bird Health.

Dr. Tizard is actively engaged in research ranging from the development of new and improved vaccines for influenza in humans to studies on bacterial diseases in parrots.

Recipients of the ACVM student awards were as follows: H.R. Adams, University of Tennessee, for "Feline lentivirus: Molecular analysis and epidemiology in southern African lions." K.F. Key, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, for "In vivo transfection of pigs with RNA transcripts of infectious cDNA clones of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV): A novel strategy to study in vivo PRRSV replication and pathogenesis without having to propagate the virus in cell cultures." N. Fittipaldi, Université de Montréal, "Deletion of the pgdA gene severely diminishes the virulence of Streptococcus suis in a murine model of infection." E. Kabara, Michigan State University, for "Common and strain-specific effects of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis on bovine monocyte derived macrophages." The Don Kahn Award: E. Behling-Kelly, University of Wisconsin-Madison, for "The roles of myosin light chain kinase and TNF-α in Haemophilus somnus mediated paracellular permeability of bovine brain endothelial cell monolayers."

Recipients of the Biosafety and Biosecurity Awards, sponsored by the Animal Health Institute, were as follows: First place: M. Ndiva Mongoh, North Dakota State University, for "Characterization of the 2005 anthrax outbreak among animals in North Dakota." Second place: A. N. Pitkin, University of Minnesota, "Aerosol transmission of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus: an application to the field, preliminary data." Second place: Summer Loneragan, West Texas A&M University, for "Survey of livestock movements and contacts for the simulation of spread of foot-and-mouth disease in the Texas Panhandle."