News Release

Contact: Gale Johnson
 540-635-4564
gjohnson@animalagriculture.org

NIAA Annual Meeting Offers Unique Opportunity to West Coast Animal Agriculture Professionals

BOWLING GREEN, KY — The Annual Meeting of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA), in Sacramento April 2-5, provides a unique opportunity to learn about the latest science, technology and industry issues for animal agriculture professionals from California and surrounding states, as well as, an opportunity to tour the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California-Davis.

The special tour of the University of California-Davis Veterinary School comes after the close of the Impacts of Animal Production Safety Practices on the Food Supply Symposium.  The tour will begin at 1:30 p.m.  The School is a 25-minute drive from downtown Sacramento, and transportation will be provided.

Dr. Alex Ardans, Director of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System (CAHFS) will provide visitors with a tour of the lab. CAHFS provides diagnostic support to safeguard the health of California’s livestock and poultry industries and to protect the public health from animal disease.  The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory (CAHFSL) successfully used environmental air-sampling technology to be the first globally to detect poultry pathogens, including exotic Newcastle disease and avian influenza virus, from naturally infected flocks.  The air-sampling method has the potential to cut the time for detecting avian influenza from the current three to 12 days down to as little as six hours.

Following the tour of CAHFS, guests will take a short walk over to the Gourley Clinical Teaching Center, which contains state-of-the-art surgical teaching facilities.  Dr. Jim Jones, Chair of the Department of Surgical and Radiological Sciences and director of the Claire Giannini Hoffman Equine Athletic Performance Laboratory.

The tour will also include a visit to the Large Animal Clinic at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital where guests will get a flavor of the equine and livestock clinical patient care services.  Finally, guests can explore Valley Hall, the newest classroom building, wired for all the current educational technologies, and view the research and wet laboratory buildings under construction immediately adjacent to the hospital.

The American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists (ARPAS) will award a total of 21 continuing education credits for the entire meeting.  The breakdown is three (3) CEUs for the Opening General Session, Monday afternoon, seven (7) for each day of the committee sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, and four (4) for the Thursday Symposium.  For detailed information on program content for each of these days go to www.animalagriculture.org, click on Annual Meeting and then Schedule of Events, Program Details & Speaker Information.

“Even if it isn’t for continuing education credit, this is a meeting that anyone involved in animal agriculture really must attend,” says Dr. Richard Breitmeyer, California State Veterinarian and past member of the NIAA Board of Directors.   “NIAA really is ‘where animal agriculture comes together’ in a unique way to exchange information on animal health and specific diseases, and to discuss and formulate policy on issues facing all major species and the industry in general.  Further, the NIAA annual meeting is held in this region about every six years so it seldom is so convenient for those of us from the West coast,” he concludes. 

Symposium registration is available online.  You can register for the symposium until March 21 for $195.  You can also register onsite for $225.  Everyone registered for the entire Annual Meeting is admitted at no extra charge to the symposium.

Student registration is also available.  One-day registration fees ($25/day) include seminars & committee meetings held on that day, and banquets/functions held on that day.  Please see the schedule of events to decide which day or days you would like to attend! Entire meeting registration fees ($100) include Opening General Session, Symposium, Seminars & Committee Meetings, "Welcome to California" Reception, and the NIAA Annual Membership Meeting and Recognition Banquet.

Attendees can register for the entire meeting or for specific days.  For registration and more information visit www.animalagriculture.org.