FOOD ANIMAL

A description of Food Animal topics, by speaker, for the 2013 Virginia Veterinary Conference.

Friday, March 1

Tom Noffsinger, DVM
Sponsored by Merial
10:00-10:50 am; 11:00-11:50 am; 1:00-1:50 pm
Stockmanship - An Overlooked Dimension of Management
Low-stress cattle handling can be an overlooked dimension of management. This talk will explain Dr. Noffsinger’s knowledge of the subject and motives for being interested in this area.

Earl Aalseth Ph.D., DVM  
2:00-2:50 pm
12 Years of Fresh Cow Programs: What's Changed and What Remains the Same
Optimal management of the first 12 days in milk not only facilitates these processes, it provides a window into how well these cows are managed. The advent of intensive fresh cow management programs some 12 years ago was a major improvement to dairy management. With all the economic and food safety concerns, how we operate these programs has been challenged. This talk will update what matters and new alternatives to fresh cow management.

Tom Noffsinger, DVM
Sponsored by Merial
2:50-3:40 pm
Sick Cattle Management
This talk will discuss our least favorite topic – sick cattle. Sick cattle are not fun to deal with, but we’re always going to have some of them. Dr. Noffsinger wants you to understand that the philosophy should be to invest time at strategic points of the production cycle to reduce time spent at hospitals.

Earl Aalseth Ph.D., DVM  
3:50 - 4:40 pm
Intervention Based Reproduction
Use of timed breeding programs is becoming more of a concern. Drug use laws, consumer animal welfare/food safety apprehensions, more efficient reproduction and veterinary value to the dairymen are good reasons to consider alternatives. This talk will discuss the alternatives to totally timed breeding programs.

4:40-5:30 pm
New Technologies and How We Use Them as Veterinarians
New technologies are always evolving for better veterinary practice and especially dairy management. How we as veterinarians interface with these technologies affects our value to the dairy client. This talk will discuss some of the most important technologies and how to incorporate them into our practice models such that our value and presence on the dairies can be maintained.

Saturday, March 2

Meredyth Jones, DVM, MS, DACVIM
8:00-8:50 am
Field Intervention for Sick Calves
This session will focus on clinical evaluation and treatments for sick neonatal calves, particularly scouring calves. The focus will be on practical fluid therapy in the absence of laboratory diagnostics.

8:50-9:50 am
Goat Medicine for Cow Doctors
We will discuss basic herd health, parasites and other common goat diseases encountered in mixed animal practice. I would encourage practitioners to come prepared to discuss goat issues they are seeing in their practice, and we can customize this hour to suit attendee needs.

Earl Aalseth Ph.D., DVM  
10:10-11:00 am
Dealing with the FDA: Where We Are Today
Food safety and animal welfare are very big concerns today.  How we as veterinarians interface with these issues as defined by the FDA is changing how we practice. This talk will review where we are at today and how to protect your practice and your clients. 

Meredyth Jones, DVM, MS, DACVIM
11:00-11:50 am
Differentiating Neurological Diseases in Cattle
So we agree that they all need some thiamine, dexamethasone and an antibiotic. This session will feature some cases which will help with better lesion localization, treatment and prognostication of this frustrating body system.

Bill McKinnon, MS
1:20-2:10 pm
Preconditioned Feeder Cattle – The New Standard
After decades of industry discussion, totally preconditioned feeder cattle are now an accepted norm in Virginia’s marketplace. Both producers and buyers have found added value in feedlot ready cattle. The bawling calf with unknown health history faces shrinking demand.

Meredyth Jones, DVM, MS, DACVIM
2:10-3:10 pm
Pain Management in Food Animals
There are some great techniques for both procedural and disease pain that can be used in the field to potentially improve the outcome for our patients and the payback for our clients. We will focus on drugs and therapies which are cost-effective and practical.

3:20-4:05 pm
Challenging Cases in Cattle
We will look through photos and videos of some clinical cases and discuss the rationale for how they were diagnosed and treated. Come prepared to sit back and relax, and then tell me what I should have done differently!

VA Food Animal Practice Tips
4:05-5:00 pm