CRWAD-Conference of Research Workers in Animal Disease

News From The President – Dr. Rodney A. Moxley

It is a great honor and privilege to write this message as your 2013 CRWAD President.  The CRWAD was established in 1920, and since has been the venue at which many historical achievements in the field of veterinary research have been presented. The 93rd Annual Meeting was no less a success, and in which special credit and thanks are extended to Dr. Bob Ellis and Mrs. Suzy Squires for their continuing dedication.  I also wish to extend special thanks to Dr. Donald L. Reynolds, outgoing President, for his outstanding leadership. Additionally, I wish to thank the CRWAD Research Council and the many dedicated judges, session chairs, organizers and others who, in the last year and in previous years worked so hard to make this meeting successful.

A point I feel is important to make is the crucial role played by the CRWAD as a venue in which veterinary research and, especially, food animal and infectious disease research discoveries are presented. For many years, the CRWAD has been the backbone upon which many satellite organizations have attached. To be sure, there is a mutually beneficial relationship in that the satellite organizations help with CRWAD attendance, but, without the latter, it would be much more difficult to hold such meetings in an economically efficient manner. In the current economic situation we find ourselves in, we as an organization need to use our collective wisdom to ensure our solvency; otherwise, we may find ourselves as a diaspora, having our research reports scattered amongst a plentitude of other meetings.

Also, I feel it is important to call your attention to the recent passing of two of our esteemed colleagues, Drs. William C. (Bill) Wagner, 2012 Dedicatee and Dr. Lynn Joens, both past Presidents (in 1989 and 2007, respectively) of this organization. Lynn was a dear friend and colleague in the NC-62, NC-1041 and NC-1202 committees, whereas Bill was, at one time, our Administrative Advisor and mentor. The passing of each was a shock; Lynn passed only months since we saw him in good health at the last meeting, and Bill only 6 days after he was recognized as our Dedicatee.  May we all remember how short life is, and how our last encounter with someone may truly be our last.  In 2012, as Vice-President of the CRWAD, I had the honor of contacting Bill to let him know he had been chosen as our Dedicatee.  This was a joyful moment, and one in which Bill was truly honored. In retrospect, it is amazing to me how this all worked out.

In conclusion, I wish to say that the CRWAD is very special to me, because it is where I first presented my dissertation research and has been my meeting to attend and present my research results.  I sincerely hope that you are able to attend the 94th Annual Meeting and that it is as big a success as those that preceded it.

With Best Regards,
Rodney A. Moxley

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2013 Council Members

President – Dr. Rodney A. Moxley, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Vice–President – Dr. David A. Benfield, Ohio State University, Wooster, OH
Executive Director – Dr. Robert P. Ellis, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO
Council Member – Dr. Roman Ganta, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
Council Member – Dr. Laurel J. Gershwin, University of California, Davis, CA
Council Member – Dr. Paul S. Morley, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
Council Member – Dr. Chris Chase, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD

Council Members Contact Information

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News From The Executive Director – Dr. Robert P. Ellis

The CRWAD annual meeting December 2-4, 2012, was memorable for several reasons.

On a personal note, the 2012 meeting marked the 25th year that you have allowed me the privilege of being your CRWAD Executive Director.  I worked with Dr. Erwin Kohler at the 1987 meeting, with a few phone calls prior to the meeting. At the 1987 meeting, the CRWAD Council formally accepted Dr. Kohler’s recommendation that I be the next CRWAD Secretary/Treasurer. In October 1988, on Monday of the week that abstracts were due, we had 30 abstracts. I was thinking that the meeting was not going to have hardly any abstracts, which would translate into very sparse attendance, and I was going to be a failure my first year. I called Dr. Kohler for suggestions on what to do to ‘save’ the meeting, and he wisely advised me to wait until Friday, the deadline, and recount the abstracts. I left later that same Monday to conduct field research, and Friday afternoon when I returned we had over 300 abstracts! This trend continues today, but the abstracts all arrive electronically and not by fax or express mail. The Council recommended at the 1991 annual meeting that the Secretary/Treasurer position be changed to Executive Director, and the members approved the change at the 1991 Business Meeting.

Another personal note is that the person who was installed as President in 1988 was Dr. Bill Wagner.  Bill attended many CRWAD meetings throughout his careers, as he mentioned in his Dedicatee comments in Chicago last December.  I say ‘careers’ because he had several throughout his lifetime and all centered on animal health and disease. I vividly remember finding him many times sitting by one of the windows on the second floor at the Congress Hotel, contemplating administrative issues, and still being very open to conversations regarding CRWAD. His insights and suggestions have been very helpful throughout the past 25 years. You who were at the 2012 Business Meeting had an opportunity to see and hear Bill at his final CRWAD meeting. It was with sadness that we were informed that Bill had died only 6 days following our annual meeting. His final public appearance was at CRWAD, which underlines his dedication to our organization.

The Students and Postdocs Reception was a new event at the 2012 meeting. It was well attended, with about 100 persons present. The intent was that students and post docs have an informal opportunity to visit with our Dedicatee, other Life Members, and CRWAD Council members. Observations were that the reception met this goal; the tables were busy with conversation among all in attendance. The Council plans to continue this event.

Please continue to encourage colleagues to attend, present, and join CRWAD. We need this continued support from our members, and we must build our membership to continue the CRWAD traditions of leadership in the many and diverse disciplines of animal disease research. 

Sincerely, Bob Ellis, CRWAD Executive Director

ABSTRACTS NOW AVAILABLE ON-LINE AT: On-line Meeting Planner and Itinerary Builder

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2012 CRWAD DEDICATEE – William C. (Bill) Wagner, DVM, PhD, Dipl.ACT

Dr. William C. (Bill) Wagner received the DVM degree in 1956 and the PhD degree in 1968, both from Cornell. He is a member of several honor societies: Alpha Zeta, Phi Zeta, Phi Kappa Phi, Gamma Sigma Delta and Sigma Xi. He is a Charter Diplomate of the American College of Theriogenologists and an Honor Role member of the American Veterinary Medical Association. He is a Distinguished Scholar of the National Academy of Practice-Veterinary Medicine. He is a member of several scientific societies including the Society for the Study of Reproduction (Charter Member), Society for the Study of Fertility, American Society of Animal Science, American Physiological Society, Conference of Research Workers in Animal Disease (President, 1988-89), International Congress on Animal Reproduction (President, 1988-96) and the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians.

He was the recipient of an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Cornell University in 1965-68, a Senior U. S. Scientist Awardee of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 1973-74, a Senior Fulbright Research Professorship in Germany (1984-85), and received the David Bartlett Award of the American College of Theriogenologists in 1995 and the William P. Switzer Award from Iowa State University for Meritorious Service in Veterinary Medicine in 1999. Dr. Wagner has been listed in Who’s Who in Frontiers of Science and Technology, American Men and Women of Science, Who’s Who in Veterinary Medicine and Who’s Who in America.

After one year in a general practice in Interlaken, NY with Dr. Howard K. Fuller, Dr. Wagner was a research associate in veterinary pathology with Dr. Kenneth McEntee, and then completed the PhD degree in physiology in 1968 with Dr. William Hansel at Cornell. He then joined the faculty of the Veterinary Medical Research Institute at Iowa State University in January 1968 as an Assistant Professor, rising to Full Professor in 1976. In 1977, he moved to the University of Illinois as Head, Dept. of Veterinary Biosciences and in 1990 became Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies. During this time period Dr. Wagner served as a program manager in competitive grants in animal reproduction at the USDA-CSREES and as a member of the Study Section on Fetal Development at the NIH. In 1990-93 he also was involved in the development of the competitive grants program in animal health at the USDA-CSREES agency. Dr. Wagner was named Leader of the Section on Animal Systems and National Program Leader for Veterinary Medicine at the USDA-CSREES in 1993, a position he held until retirement in 2002. Dr. Wagner then accepted a position as Visiting Professor at The Ohio State University, working on strategic planning and research funding as well as continuing with a major effort in further development of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, which had been initiated with his leadership in 2002 while still at USDA. In August 2007, Dr. Wagner accepted the appointment as Dean, School of Veterinary Medicine, St. Matthew’s University, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, BWI. He left this position in December 2011 and is now Dean Emeritus at the School.

Dr. Wagner has served as an international consultant for IICA in Brazil (1982) and The Winrock Foundation in Pakistan in 1990. In addition he has participated in scientific meetings and presented short courses on animal reproduction in Brazil on two occasions and given numerous scientific papers and lectures at international meetings and universities.

With respect to mentoring of trainees, he has served as a mentor for four postdoctoral fellows (3 of them international trainees), eight PhD students and five MS students. In addition he has served as a member of several other students’ advisory committees. He has served on the Editorial Board for the American Journal of Veterinary Research and Theriogenology publications. Dr. Wagner served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Morris Animal Foundation (1977-81, Chair 1980-81).

In organized veterinary medicine, Dr. Wagner has served on the Council on Education of the AVMA and as Chair of the COE in 1991. He also was the ACT representative on the Advisory Board on Veterinary Specialties, 1971-1979. Dr. Wagner is a Life Member of the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD).

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CALVIN W. SCHWABE AWARD to Dr. Ian Dohoo

Dr. Ian Dohoo, Emeritus, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada

The Calvin W. Schwabe Award is presented annually by the AVEPM to honor lifetime achievement in veterinary epidemiology and preventative medicine. The 2012 honoree is:

Ian Dohoo DVM, PhD, FCAHS
Dr. Ian Dohoo is a Professor Emeritus of epidemiology at the University of Prince Edward Island and the immediate past-Director of the Centre for Veterinary Epidemiological Research (www.upei.ca/cver).  His extensive publication and graduate student supervision records, combined with authorship of the leading graduate level text in the field (Veterinary Epidemiologic Research – www.upei.ca/ver), have established his reputation as a leading international figure in veterinary epidemiology and population-based health research. He is recognized as an excellent teacher both locally and internationally and is frequently involved in the delivery of high level post-graduate courses around the world. He has served as President of the Canadian Association of Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine and has received numerous teaching and research awards. In 2005 he was one of four veterinarians in Canada elected as an inaugural Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. In 2008 he was awarded an honorary Veterinary Medical Doctorate by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and in 2012, an honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Guelph.

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DISTINGUISHED VETERINARY IMMUNOLOGIST

Dr. Michael P. Murtaugh (photo: on right), Department of Veterinary & Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, was presented the 2012 Distinguished Veterinary Immunologist Award by Dr. Carol Chitko–McKown.

Dr. Michael P. Murtaugh’s scientific journey began at the University of Notre Dame, where George Craig in the Department of Biology channeled his love of science in the direction of entomology. After graduating with a BS degree in biology in 1973, he joined the Peace Corps and served two years in Maracay, Venezuela, at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, where he carried out research on non-insecticidal methods of pest control for yield improvement in maize. During this time, he amassed a collection of about 12,000 insects, and traveled throughout Venezuela and South America, thus developing an appreciation for the evolutionary diversity of insects and the cultural diversity of humans. He entered the entomology PhD program at Ohio State University in 1976 and left in 1980 with a dissertation on the regulation of egg laying in the house cricket, Acheta domestica, under the guidance of David Denlinger, who was recently elected to the National Academy of Science, two children, and awareness that a deeper knowledge of cell biology was needed to understand biological regulatory mechanisms. A postdoc appointment in the Department of Medicine, University of Texas Medical Center at Houston, filled this gap in knowledge. Working with Peter J.A. Davies, he became an expert in the regulation of transglutaminase expression in macrophages and dipped a toe into molecular biology. He joined the faculty of the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology at the University of Minnesota in 1985 as the token molecular biologist. With no veterinary background whatsoever, his chair, Victor Perman, asked only that he develop a research program that had something to do with animal health. This sage advice, combined with an energetic and ambitious faculty group in swine medicine and a supportive state swine industry, led him to develop a program in molecular mechanisms of disease resistance, focused on pigs, that has guided the lab for the following quarter century.

In the late 1980’s there were few reagents available to investigate porcine immunology, so the first challenge was to use the new power of recombinant DNA technology to clone, express, and purify cytokines. It was a fertile time for a molecular biologist, even one who had never done a Southern blot, in a College of Veterinary Medicine. Papers were published describing cytokine biology in swine, molecular diagnostic tools for bacterial pathogens, and collaborative research in neurobiology, pharmacology, and related topics. Studies in porcine pleuropneumonia showed that In 1990, a new viral disease of swine emerged simultaneously in North America and Europe. Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus was, and remains still, a devastating disease of swine. The lab became involved in molecular analysis and evolution of PRRSV and has made extensive basic and translational contributions to the understanding of porcine immune responses to PRRSV. He was the director of the PRRS Coordinated Agricultural Project, the first USDA program project, from 2004 to 2008 and has lectured extensively on PRRS immunology, vaccinology, and diagnostics throughout the world. Recently his lab has initiated a similar program to elucidate the immunological interaction of swine with porcine circoviruses, and has contributed to annotation of immune response genes in the porcine genome.

In addition to maintaining an active research program that provides a home to undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, and visiting scientists, he provides community outreach with molecular biotechnology workshops for educators, professionals, and international scientists, directs the Comparative and Molecular Biosciences graduate program, and regularly reviews grants and manuscripts. His many contributions have been recognized through the CVM Pfizer Award for Research Excellence (four times) and the University of Minnesota Inventor Recognition Award in 2005, a University Innovations Award in 2011, and the Allen D. Leman Swine Conference Pijoan Lectureship in 2008.

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DISTINGUISHED VETERINARY MICROBIOLOGIST

The Distinguished Veterinary Microbiologist for 2012 was Dr. Leon N. D. Potgieter, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.

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NEW MEMBERS

Photo Left to Right: New CRWAD Members and the 2012 CRWAD President, Dr. Donald L. Reynolds (Photo: Far Right).

The Following New Regular Member Applicants, approved by the Council, were announced and presented with Member Certificates:

16 New 2013 Members
1) Helen Aceto, New Bolten Center, University of Pennsylvania, Kennett Square, PA
2) Jane Christopher-Hennings, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD
3) Amin A. Fadl, Animal Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
4) Tanya Graham, Vet & Biomedical Sci, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD
5) Greg G. Habing, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
6) Paulraj K. Lawrence, Newport Laboratories, Worthington, MN
7) Kelly F. Lechtenberg, Midwest Veterinary Services, Inc., Oakland, NE
8) Stephen K. Muir, Boehringer-Ingelheim Vetmedica, St. Joseph, MO
9) Patrick Pithua, Veterinary Med. & Surgery, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
10) Sheela Ramamoorthy, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND
11) Aaron Reeves, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
12) Michael W. Sanderson, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
13) Emilio Trigo, Merck Animal Health, Desoto, KS
14) Christopher K. Tuggle, Dept. of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
15) Rebecca P. Wilkes, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
16) Michele L. Williams, FAHRP-OARDC, Ohio State University, Wooster, OH

2013 CRWAD New Life Members
1) Lawrence H. Arp, Charles River Pathology Associates, Boulder, Colorado

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2013 ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Electronic Abstract submission will be required for the 2013 meeting. The Abstract deadline for the 2013 CRWAD Annual Meeting is August 22.  Abstracts will be sent to CRWAD through the OASIS On-line Abstract Submission Program. 

The OASIS On-line Abstract Submission Program will not accept abstracts after midnight August 26.  The submitting author for each abstract will be considered the contact author and presenter.  The abstracts submitted by the deadline of August 22, will be allowed a four day editing window by the submitting author.  The editing window will close at midnight, August 26, 2013.  Information and access to the OASIS On-line Abstract Submission Program will be available on our CRWAD web site June 6, 2013.

Abstract submission instructions and information are available at AUTHOR INSTRUCTIONS.

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Chicago Marriott (Downtown) Room Reservations 2013

A dedicated booking website has been created for our CRWAD event. Guests will be able to make, modify and cancel their hotel reservations online, as well as take advantage of any room upgrades, amenities or other services offered by the hotel.

Attendees please note:
The custom link will direct you to the on-line CRWAD custom room block at a Passkey system. The block will be closed off in the Passkey system 3 days before the meeting date. Use these phone numbers (Toll–Free: 1–877–303–0104 ; or 1–866–596–7456 for international calls) if you opt to call the hotel instead.

Please place your hotel sleeping room reservations at the following custom site:
Chicago Marriott (Downtown) Hotel custom CRWAD Room Reservations Web site

If you call the hotel (Toll–Free: 1–877–303–0104 ; or 1–866–596–7456 for international calls) to make your sleeping room reservation make sure you ask for the CRWAD group rate.  Place your reservation by November 8, to secure a sleeping room under the CRWAD group rate. 2013 CRWAD Group Rate is $201 plus taxes for a single/double room.

DO NOT send your CRWAD meeting registration payment to the hotel.

NOTICE:  The Chicago Marriott may be sold out the nights of December 6 and 7, 2013. CRWAD has a block of rooms reserved, and you must make your reservations by November 8 to insure that you obtain a room before our block is released. When reserving your room by phone make sure you indicate your affiliation with the CRWAD in order to receive the special CRWAD group rate.

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THANK YOU PAST PRESIDENT Dr. Donald L. Reynolds

Photo: left to right:
In–coming 2013 President, Dr. Rodney A. Moxley, and Out–going 2012 President Dr. Donald L. Reynolds holding the Past President's Plaque.

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AHRR (Animal Health Research Reviews

Dr. Roger William (Bill) Stich , Editor–in–Chief, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, presented a report on the status of Animal Health Research Reviews. AHRR is marketed by Cambridge Publishing.

"Animal Health Research Reviews provides an international forum for the publication of reviews and commentaries on all aspects of animal health. Papers include in-depth analyses and broader overviews of all facets of health and science in both domestic and wild animals."

Animal Health Research Reviews may be ordered from Cambridge Journals: AHRR Subscription Order Form

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