March 01, 2018
More than 65,000 AVMA members have professional liability insurance, life insurance, or other coverage through the AVMA PLIT and AVMA Life—but most of these policyholders don’t distinguish much between the Association’s two insurance trusts. Now, the trusts are unifying under an umbrella trust. Libby Wallace, CEO of AVMA Life, and Dr. Andrew Clark, CEO of the AVMA PLIT, emphasized that policyholders’ coverage will not change, and AVMA members can anticipate one-stop shopping for insurance down the line.
AVMA
Telehealth in veterinary medicine continues to advance with greater use by corporate and private practices—and even use by the AVMA in pilot studies. This is happening both in the U.S. and abroad, with use abroad potentially affecting veterinarians and animal owners stateside. Still, although telehealth is a useful tool that some say has the potential to earn practices greater business and allow clients greater convenience, its success remains dependent on veterinarians’ skills and willingness to adapt.
Issues
Feral rhesus macaques living in a Florida state park can transmit herpes B virus, which is potentially deadly in humans. Transmission is a low-incidence, high-consequence risk, according to an article in the February issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases. Macaques harbor the herpes B virus, or macacine herpesvirus 1, without having clinical signs. In humans, half of untreated infections cause fatal encephalitis.
Community
The 98th annual meeting of the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases was dedicated to Dr. Katherine Kocan for her extensive work in the field of veterinary parasitology, specifically ticks and tick-borne diseases. Over 500 people from 23 countries attended the meeting, held this past December in Chicago.
Correction
The Veterinary Hyperbaric Medicine Society at press time listed 70 veterinary hyperbaric oxygen chambers in 19 states. That’s more chambers than were reported on page 381 of the Feb. 15 article “
When fire strikes home.” The map of U.S. chambers is at
www.vhbot.org/usa-locations.