CRWAD dedicated to Simmons

Animal disease researchers convene, honor their own
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Dr. Simmons
Dr. Donald G. Simmons

Approximately 450 people attended the 92nd annual meeting of the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases, Dec. 4-6, 2011, in Chicago.

The meeting was dedicated to Dr. Donald G. Simmons, considered one of the founding fathers of the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

After earning his DVM degree in 1967 and his doctorate from the University of Georgia, Dr. Simmons became a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists. Early in his career, he spent several years with the NCSU Department of Poultry Science researching viral and bacterial diseases of turkeys.

In the late '70s, Dr. Simmons joined the new Veterinary Science Department at NCSU, where he would be instrumental in helping start the College of Veterinary Medicine. He taught veterinary students while continuing to research turkey diseases.

Dr. Simmons left NCSU in 1988 to head the Department of Veterinary Science at Pennsylvania State University. There, he provided leadership for teaching, research, and extension programs and for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' diagnostic laboratory.

In 1996, Dr. Simmons was hired as director of the newly established AVMA Education and Research Division. For the next 11 years, he participated in the AVMA Council on Education accreditation process for U.S. and foreign veterinary colleges, the accreditation of domestic veterinary technology programs, and the certification of foreign veterinary graduates wanting to practice in the United States.

Dr. Simmons played a key role in the AVMA securing reciprocity agreements with Canada and Great Britain that allowed U.S.-trained veterinarians to practice abroad. He retired to North Carolina in 2007.

Life membership in CRWAD was awarded to Edmour F. Blouin, PhD, Stillwater, Okla.

The 2012 CRWAD officers are Dr. Donald L. Reynolds, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, president; Dr. Rodney A. Moxley, Lincoln, Neb., vice president; and Robert P. Ellis, PhD, Fort Collins, Colo., executive director.

AVEPM awards

The Association for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine awarded the 2011 Calvin W. Schwabe Award to Dr. Dale D. Hancock, professor of epidemiology in the Field Disease Investigation Unit at the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

The 1975 graduate of Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences earned a master's and doctorate from The Ohio State University and has been at WSU since 1984, when he joined the Field Disease Investigation Unit. Since that time, Dr. Hancock has taught veterinary students and undergraduates and headed up numerous disease investigations at farms.

At WSU, Dr. Hancock developed and led a pioneering research program in the field of preharvest food safety, focusing especially on Escherichia coli O157:H7. This program defined many of the key epidemiologic features of that agent in diverse animal populations.

Dr. Hancock's influence reached an entire generation of food animal clinicians through his publication, "Population Medicine News." The biweekly periodical, available from 1988-1996, covered a wide variety of epidemiologic concepts and ideas.

Recipients of the AVEPM student awards were as follows: Epidemiology and Animal Health Economics category, oral—Matthew Allerson, University of Minnesota, for "The impact of maternally derived immunity on influenza virus transmission in neonatal pig populations," and Heidi Pecoraro, Colorado State University, for "Comparison of virus isolation, one-step real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR assay, and two rapid influenza diagnostic tests for detecting canine influenza virus (H3N8) shedding in dogs." Food and Environmental Safety category, oral—Sara Gragg, Texas Tech University, for "Salmonella in lymph nodes of cattle presented for harvest," and William Chaney, Texas Tech University, for "Development of a semi-quantitative ranking scheme to estimate the concentration of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in bovine feces." Poster—Josephine Afema, Washington State University, for "Antimicrobial resistance in the ten most common Salmonella serotypes at the Salmonella bank at Washington State University, Pullman: 1986-2010."

The Mark Gearhart Memorial Graduate Student Award was presented by the AVEPM to Dr. Rebecca Smith, Cornell University, for "Environmental contamination with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in endemically infected dairy herds."

AAVI awards

The American Association of Veterinary Immunologists named Dr. Patricia E. Shewen winner of the 2011 AAVI Distinguished Veterinary Immunologist Award.

Dr. Shewen earned her DVM degree, master's, and doctorate from University of Guelph's Ontario Veterinary College, where she has been a faculty member since 1982. She currently holds the title of professor emerita.

The focus of Dr. Shewen's research has been immunity in infectious diseases of ruminants, particularly chlamydial infertility in sheep and bovine pneumonic pasteurellosis, with recent emphasis on induction of immunity in neonates.

During her career, Dr. Shewen helped organize three international scientific meetings at Guelph, including the 1st International Veterinary Immunology Symposium in 1986. She has held senior administrative positions at Ontario Veterinary College, having been the assistant dean of research and inaugural chair of the Department of Pathobiology at the college.

Recipients of the AAVI student awards were as follows: First place, oral—Nicole Behrens, University of California-Davis, for "T regulatory cells and IgE are inversely correlated in horses vaccinated with viral vaccines." Second place, oral—Sarah Mattmiller, Michigan State University, for "Selenoproteins alter eicosanoid biosynthesis in macrophages." Third place, oral—Xavier Revelo, University of Missouri, for "Impaired capacity of neutrophils to produce reactive oxygen species, release extracellular traps and express genes encoding for cytokines may contribute to altered immune function in periparturient dairy cows." First place, poster—Lakshmi Sunkara, Oklahoma State University, for "Modulation of antimicrobial host defense peptide gene expression by free fatty acids." Second place, poster—John Schwartz, University of Minnesota, for "The porcine antibody repertoire and its response to PRRSV infection." Third place, poster—Lydia Siebert, University of Tennessee, for "Expression of CXCR1 and CXCR2 in bovine mammary tissue."

ACVM awards

The American College of Veterinary Microbiologists named Dr. Yehia Mohamed "Mo" Saif the 2011 Distinguished Veterinary Microbiologist.

Dr. Saif is an internationally renowned expert on enteric and respiratory diseases of poultry. During a research career spanning more than three decades, Dr. Saif has written extensively about infectious poultry diseases and has edited several editions of "Diseases of Poultry," seen as the standard reference text on the subject.

In addition to his duties as professor and head of the Food Animal Health Research Program at The Ohio State University, Dr. Saif is an assistant dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. A diplomate of the ACVM and American College of Poultry Veterinarians, he has been involved in international activities related to infectious poultry diseases throughout Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia.

Dr. Saif is the delegate for the American Association of Avian Pathologists in the AVMA House of Delegates.

Dr. Saif received his veterinary degree from the University of Cairo in 1958 and later earned his master's and doctorate at OSU.

The ACVM student awards were presented to the following recipients: Don Kahn Award—Ahmed M. Abdallah, University of Minnesota, for "Misfolded Y145stop catalyzes the conversion of full prion protein." In vitro category—Lauren Demos, Murdoch University, Australia, for "FISHing for cats: development of a fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assay targeting feline papillomaviruses." Molecular category—Sally R. Robinson, University of Minnesota, for "Novel PRRSV ORF5a protein is not immunoprotective but drives GP5 glycosylation." In vivo category—Heather R. Walz, Auburn University, for "Evaluation of cd25, foxp3, and cc15 gene expression in placentomes of pregnant cattle inoculated with bovine viral diarrhea virus." Poster—Huiling Wei, Purdue University, for "Development of DNA vaccine against H1N1 subtype swine influenza viruses."

Other awards

The Society for Tropical Veterinary Medicine student award was presented to J.D. Ramsay, Washington State University, for "A novel Theileria equi sporozoite challenge model for pathogenesis and immune control studies in immunocompetent and immunodeficient horses."

The American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists student award was presented to Ann Taylor Busby, Oklahoma State University, for "Functional analysis of tick genes differentially expressed in response to Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection."

The NC-1041 Enteric Diseases (North Central Committee for Research on Enteric Diseases of Swine and Cattle) student awards were presented to the following recipients: First place, oral—Hyeun Bum Kim, University of Minnesota, for "Quantitative evaluation of changes in C-reactive protein level and Salmonella enteric status as indicators of the swine health status in response to use of the antibiotic growth promoter, tylosin." Poster—Yong-il Cho, Iowa State University, for "Detection and molecular characterization of bovine noroviruses among bovine diarrhea cases in the U.S. Midwest."

The Biosafety and Biosecurity Awards, sponsored by the Animal Health Institute and the Joseph J. Garbarino Foundation, were presented to the following students: First place—Carmen Alonso Garcia-Mochales, University of Minnesota, for "Evaluation study of interventions for reducing the risk of PRRSV introduction into filtered farms via retrograde air movement (back-drafting) through idle fans." Second place—Audrey Ruple-Czerniak, Colorado State University, for "Isolation of Salmonella organisms from the environment in a large animal hospital using electrostatic (Swiffer) and sterile sponge collection devices." Third place—Kate Bottoms, University of Guelph, Ontario, for "Biosecurity assessment as a tool towards risk-based surveillance on swine farms in southern Ontario."


Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified the winner of an NC-1041 Enteric Diseases (North Central Committee for Research on Enteric Diseases of Swine and Cattle) student award.