YOUR MONTHLY NEWS & UPDATES |
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Laboratory Diagnosticians' News Matters |
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ANNOUNCEMENT:
2020 All Virtual Meeting Comes Together
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Dear members and stakeholders of AAVLD and USAHA,
As you have surely heard by now, the 2020 Annual Meeting of the AAVLD will be 100% virtual. Since this decision was made, committee chairs and the program committee have been working to establish an agenda that will be functional, convenient, educational, accessible, and safer for all. To meet these goals, the meeting has been stretched out over two weeks and most of the activity is during daytime hours on weekdays, which accommodates for the multiple time zones during live events. The sessions will be a variety of pre-recorded and live events, with most of the scientific sessions being available on demand at the convenience of the viewer. It is hoped that the new agenda will allow even more participation, especially technicians and bench scientists; CE certificates are available upon request to those that need CE hours. Committee meetings will be live events and we remind everyone that AAVLD committee meetings are open to all for participation (except for the Accreditation Committee). Perhaps this would be a great year for members to explore and become more engaged with committee service – where the advancement of our discipline is central. We are planning a live AAVLD Foundation Fundraiser/Auction event which will be one of our fun virtual social events – details to follow. A special plenary session with COVID topics and a keynote speaker are also planned. So please check out the tentative agenda as displayed in this edition of the AAVLD NEWS and registration will be open soon. This year especially, your registration and virtual participation are important to our discipline and will allow us to continue the great mission of the AAVLD throughout the calendar year. See you soon – virtually!
Dr. Shuping Zhang
2020 Annual Meeting Program Chair
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Could Labs That Test Livestock Ease COVID Testing Backlog for People? Well … Maybe.
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“Five veterinary labs have their CLIA certification to officially test human patients. There are a lot of labs who are doing surveillance testing that don’t need the CLIA certification.” |
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Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper, July 26, 2020
This story was produced in partnership with PolitiFact.
This story can be republished for free (details).
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In a heated exchange late last month on CNN’s State of the Union, host Jake Tapper pressed Adm. Brett Giroir, the Health and Human Services assistant secretary who oversees COVID testing efforts for the Trump administration, on why the government isn’t requiring commercial labs to increase testing capacity in order to speed turnaround time.
Giroir’s response described a series of steps — some unusual — being taken by the federal government. One focus was on the role veterinary labs, including those with special certification, could play in helping to build capacity. “Five veterinary labs have their CLIA certification to officially test human patients,” he said. “There are a lot of labs who are doing surveillance testing that don’t need the CLIA certification.”
So that got us wondering: Can labs that test cattle, chickens or your pet Fido run tests on humans? And, if so, what role are they playing in the national pandemic, and how much is it helping?
After all, the issue of expanding lab capacity will likely come up repeatedly as demand for testing increases with mounting case counts. Turnaround times at some labs have grown, with results now taking days to more than a week in some areas, frustrating consumers and public health officials. Delays for test results mean delays for contact tracing and quarantining. The administration’s pandemic response, including testing issues, is also proving to be a hot topic on the campaign trail.
We reached out to HHS for more information about Giroir’s statement.
An HHS spokesperson emailed a list of nine veterinary labs that have received the required certification to do patient-specific human testing, saying Giroir had been mistakenly briefed before the interview that there were only five. A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson said there are 15 National Animal Health Laboratory Network facilities nationwide that have CLIA certification to test human samples. Clearly, there are vet labs in the U.S. with the necessary credentials, but the exact number is a matter of confusion.
As for the surveillance efforts, the HHS spokesperson did not provide specific examples of veterinary labs doing such work but provided a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services FAQ saying labs that don’t have CLIA certification can do some types of surveillance if results are not given to specific patients.
Similar Science, Same Machines
Our experts all quickly noted that veterinary labs — especially those that focus on food animals, including cows, pigs and chickens, have long tested for diseases, including many kinds of coronaviruses.
They’re on the lookout for microbes that can affect food safety, such as salmonella or E. coli, or diseases that can devastate the animals themselves, including avian influenza, hoof and mouth disease or African swine fever.
Hence, a lot of testing goes on in the 63 food-animal testing labs in 33 states and four Canadian provinces accredited by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, said its executive director, David Zeman.
“In some states, we have more capacity in the vet labs than in the public health labs,” he added.
Those vet labs, often affiliated with universities or government agencies, use highly sophisticated equipment, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques, as do labs focusing on human testing. Many of the COVID tests being done are PCR, which can detect the virus’s genetic material.
“It’s the same machines, the same science,” said Zeman.
However, these are large, full-service labs that deal mainly with farm animals, different from the smaller labs generally found at your neighborhood vet. So, sorry, Fido.
A Different Regulatory Chain of Command
Earlier this year, researchers at Iowa State University found that the testing process for the new coronavirus is similar to that used to test pigs for porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) virus, a disease that killed thousands of piglets in 2013. Because a lot of labs had updated their equipment and processes so they could check for PED, they were in a good position to help with COVID-19 testing.
Except, of course, it’s never that simple.
While the science and technology are the same, the administrative requirements are not.
Veterinary labs must meet standards for accreditation by such groups as the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians and are overseen by federal and state agricultural agencies.
Human labs also must meet strict standards, including CLIA, and fall under the auspices of other agencies, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One requirement is that the CLIA lab must have a director who is a medical doctor with specialized experience. Most animal labs are run by, not surprisingly, veterinarians, often ones with Ph.D.s. Some vet labs have formed partnerships with CLIA-certified labs to clear this hurdle. Still, it’s a process that can take weeks, so it’s not an overnight fix, said Zeman.
Running the Numbers
SOURCES
Telephone interview with Mark Ackermann, director of the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, July 28, 2020
Email correspondence with Michelle Forman, manager, Media Association of Public Health Laboratories, July 28, 2020
Email correspondence with Mia Heck, spokesperson for Department of Health and Human Services, July 28 and 29, 2020
Telephone interview with Gigi Gronvall, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, July 28, 2020
Telephone interview with David Zeman, executive director of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, July 28, 2020
Telephone interview with Thomas Sparkman, senior vice president, government affairs and policy, American Clinical Laboratory Association, July 28, 2020
Email correspondence with Lyndsay Cole, assistant director for public affairs, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, July 30, 2020
But can these labs really make a difference in the testing backlog?
A June article on the American Veterinary Medicine Association website quoted an official in May saying that the then-seven CLIA-certified vet labs had the capacity to process 12,000 PCR samples with a 24-hour turnaround.
Zeman said he sent out a survey in July to his 63 members in response to an HHS inquiry and found that, on average, each lab — if CLIA-certified — could process 500 to 1,000 COVID samples a day on top of what it needs to do to monitor animals.
“Multiply that by 60 some labs and you have a rough idea of what they could do,” he said. The math adds up to at least 31,500 tests a day.
Currently, more than 700,000 samples are taken daily and sent to all types of labs — mainly large commercial and hospital-based facilities, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University. The Atlantic’s COVID Tracking Project notes similar testing numbers at the end of July.
More vet labs participating “could ease the burden on these labs, but it doesn’t sound like a game changer in terms of wait times,” said Gigi Gronvall, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Some vet labs are working with public health labs to “test a specific segment of the population (university students, routine screening of government workers, etc.),” said Michelle Forman, media manager for the Association of Public Health Laboratories in an email. “So it’s not so much taking existing burden off of the public health labs and commercial labs but it is preventing additional burden from being put on them.”
Giroir said “lots” of labs that are non-CLIA certified labs are helping by doing research or surveillance, but Zeman was not aware of such efforts by such labs in his organization.
Perhaps Giroir was talking about “pooled testing,” in which a number of specimens are tested in a batch, speculated Mark Ackermann, director of the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon. Under that method, if any batch tests positive, individual specimens from the batch are then each tested to see who is positive.
Ackermann, whose lab has CLIA certification, pointed to another way vet labs might be helping: Many are making the liquid needed for the vials that hold the swabs taken from patients’ nasal passages.
Our Ruling
Giroir was correct in saying there are some veterinary labs helping out with COVID testing.
But even if all 63 accredited food-animal vet labs in the U.S. and Canada were pressed into processing human COVID tests, an industry survey estimates it would increase capacity by between 31,500 to 63,000 samples per day. While helpful, that would still be only a small portion of the more than 700,000 daily tests being conducted, which some experts say falls short of what is needed.
Additionally, while vet labs are helping in some ways, Giroir provided little evidence to back up his assertion that “lots” of labs that lack CLIA certification are assisting in surveillance efforts.
We rate this statement Mostly True.
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SDSU Student Health Clinic and Counseling Services has 3 rapid point-of-care testing machines; ADRDL certified for testing |
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BROOKINGS, S.D. - Aug. 18, 2020 - South Dakota State University’s Student Health Clinic and Counseling Services has three rapid point-of-care COVID-19 testing machines in place for testing of symptomatic students. The machines are from the South Dakota Department of Health.
In addition, the state’s Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory on campus recently was certified by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to do SARS-CoV-2 testing, allowing increased testing capacity on campus. The SDSU One Health Diagnostic Laboratory is the result of a partnership between SDSU, Avera and Physicians Laboratory. The One Health Diagnostic Laboratory is a service of the ADRDL specifically for SARS-CoV-2 testing. COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Tests conducted by the ADRDL will be done within the recently constructed Biosafety Level 3 laboratory. It will be used to confirm tests taken by the Student Health Clinic and Counseling Services when an unexpected negative result occurs or if the clinic is unable to keep up with demand.
“We are thankful for the partnership with Avera and Physicians Laboratory and how everyone is working together in this viral testing strategy oriented toward the safety of our students, which is first and foremost our plan for everything concerning the fall semester,” said Daniel Scholl, SDSU vice president for research and economic development. “Dr. Jane Christopher-Hennings and her team have done exemplary work to launch the SDSU One Health Diagnostic Laboratory for this purpose, while maintaining ADRDL’s high level of services to animal health.”
About South Dakota State University
Founded in 1881, South Dakota State University is the state’s Morrill Act land-grant institution as well as its largest, most comprehensive school of higher education. SDSU confers degrees from seven different colleges representing more than 200 majors, minors and specializations. The institution also offers 36 master’s degree programs, 15 Ph.D. and two professional programs.
The work of the university is carried out on a residential campus in Brookings, at sites in Sioux Falls, Pierre and Rapid City, and through Extension offices and Agricultural Experiment Station research sites across the state. SDSU's research expenditures for the 2018 fiscal year were more than $60 million.
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The goal of JVDI in Focus is to bring attention to an interesting article appearing in the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation. This month’s focus is on an article in the upcoming September issue: “Seroprevalence of Leptospira spp.in Colorado equids and association with clinical disease” by Anna C. Fagre, Christie E. Mayo, Kristy L. Pabilonia, and Gabriele A. Landolt.
J Vet Diagn Invest 2020;32(5)
Abstract. Detection of Leptospira interrogans is difficult as a result of intermittent leptospiruria and brief leptospiremia. Hence, diagnosis relies heavily on serologic testing, the reference method of which is the microscopic agglutination test (MAT). In horses, clinical leptospirosis has been associated with abortion, recurrent uveitis, and sporadic cases of hepatic and renal disease. Little information exists on the seroprevalence of antibodies to L. interrogans in equids in the United States; past nationwide studies suggest that the seroprevalence in some areas is as high as 77% (reciprocal titer ≥100). We tested sera from 124 apparently healthy horses previously submitted for equine infectious anemia (EIA) serology using MAT for 6 serovars—Bratislava, Canicola, Grippotyphosa, Hardjo, Icterohemorrhagiae, and Pomona. When using a reciprocal MAT titer cutoff of ≥100, 102 of 124 (82%) of the samples were positive for at least one serovar. Seropositivity was significantly associated with increasing age. Query of specimens from clinical cases submitted to the Colorado State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory for MAT since 2010 indicated significantly greater seroprevalence (p = 0.015) of pathogenic serovar Pomona in clinical cases compared to sera submitted from healthy equids for routine EIA testing. Information from our diagnostic laboratory submission forms also suggests a correlation between uveitis or other ophthalmic problems and serovar Pomona.
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Figure 1. Control group sera (n = 124) Leptospira interrogans microscopic agglutination test reciprocal titers, by serovar (1 June 2015–30 Sept 2015); 63 of 124 (51%) had a titer to more than 1 serovar.
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Figure 2. Clinical group sera Leptospira interrogans microscopic agglutination test reciprocal titers, by serovar (01 July 2010–26 Jan 2017; n = 160 for Canicola, Grippotyphosa, Hardjo, Icterohaemorrhagiae, and Pomona; n = 3 for Bratislava). Many samples (106 of 163, 65%) had a titer ≥100 to more than 1 serovar.
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Date: July 15, 2020
Press Release
Subject: New Members Elected to WSA
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The Washington State Academy of Sciences (WSAS) is pleased to announce 21 new members, recognizing their outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement and their willingness to work on behalf of the Academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.
The 2020 class of new members is composed of 17 new elected members and 4 new members from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine who live or work in Washington State. These new members bring diverse expertise and experience to WSAS.
New members will be inducted at the 13th Annual Members’ Meeting on September 10, 2020.
Individuals directly elected by the WSAS membership:
Nancy Allbritton, Frank & Julie Jungers Dean and Professor, College of Engineering, University of Washington
For outstanding contributions to the design and application of microtechnologies to biomedical research, leadership in interdisciplinary research and education, and entrepreneurial excellence.
Nathan Baker, PNNL Laboratory Fellow/UW-PNNL Distinguished Faculty Fellow, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
For technical expertise evidenced by data science projects for NIH and other government sponsors, as well as leadership in signature discovery research, including projects in machine learning, decision support, risk analysis, and signal processing with applications in bioforensics, soil microbiomes, and nuclear non-proliferation.
Timothy Baszler, Professor, Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, Washington State University
For leadership in laboratory systems for the detection and prompt confirmation of pathogen emergence and spread at the state, national, and global levels, and for providing the evidence base for control of emergent animal diseases as Executive Director of the Washington Animal Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory.
Kelly Brayton, Professor, Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University
For ground-breaking research which has generated foundational genome information for important animal pathogens capable of causing significant illness in humans and animals, for internationally recognized research on tick-borne pathogens, and for advances in intracellular pathogen biology, transcriptomics, and immune evasion mechanisms.
Laura Griner Hill, Professor of Human Development and Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Affairs, Washington State University
For contributions to a significant shift in the field of prevention toward the study of how to effectively implement, evaluate, and scale up prevention programs, thereby significantly decreasing risk of substance abuse among youth at a population level.
John Hooper, Senior Principal - Director of Earthquake Engineering, Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Inc.
For exemplary contributions and tireless efforts in advancing the seismic design provisions of building codes; for advancing performance-based seismic design; and, for innovative seismic design of large, iconic projects in the Western United States and in seismic zones around the world.
Christine Luscombe, Robert J. Campbell Development Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Professor of Chemistry, University of Washington
For the development of controlled polymerization reactions for conjugated polymers, especially alkyl- thiophenes, for organic electronics applications.
Alair MacLean, Professor of Sociology, Washington State University
For significant contributions to the study of veterans of the armed forces serving in war and peace time, and contributions to understanding who serves and how military service shapes their lives with respect to their employment and earnings, as well as physical and mental health across the life course.
Marc Mangel, Distinguished Professor of Applied Math and Statistics, University of California, Santa Cruz (retired)
For a scientific career dedicated to use of quantitative methods to address ecological and evolutionary problems in the conservation and management of living natural resources.
Michael McDonell, Professor, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University
For exceptional work developing treatment protocols that improve the lives of individuals who are negatively impacted by drug and alcohol misuse--especially those individuals in underrepresented populations.
Sterling McPherson, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Research and Director of Biostatistics and Clinical Trial Design, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University
For exceptional national and internationally acclaimed contributions to addiction science, with an emphasis on co-addiction treatment development and the integration of technology into novel
behavioral and pharmacotherapeutic treatments for substance use disorders, and his fostering of academic-industry partnerships.
Katrina Mealey, Professor and Associate Dean for Research, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University
For widely acclaimed expertise in pharmacogenetics, and particularly for engaging in creative activities that have benefited veterinary medicine both locally and worldwide, leading to patents, work on national and international committees and advisory panels, and many influential published works.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Congratulations to AAVLD Member Dr. Tim Baszler for this career accomplishment!
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AAVLD Participates in AVMA’s House of Delegates Meeting |
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The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) held its House of Delegates (HOD) Regular Annual Session on July 30-31, 2020. A virtual format was in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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The AAVLD is a member of the AVMA’s House Advisory Panel (HAP), along with approximately 10 other national organizations and federal units (e.g. CDC, NIH, USDA) organizations. HAP members provide expertise and unique perspectives on issues facing the AVMA, but do not cast votes on resolutions or other matters of the HOD. Dr. Keith Bailey, Immediate Past President, served as AAVLD’s representative during this meeting.
Opening remarks were provided by AVMA leadership. The AVMA reiterated their strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The AVMA’s 2020 initiatives for promoting DEI include retaining a DEI expert/consultant, collaborating with key stakeholders to explore the establishment of a commission to promote DEI, and forging a partnership with Multicultural VMA.
The topic of the Veterinary Information Forum (VIF) portion of this meeting was “Veterinary medicine in the aftermath of COVID-19: What have we learned that will guide our future?”. Presentations included updates on the efforts by CDC and FDA. Delegates shared their COVID-19 related experiences and the experiences of their constituents. Delegates also provided comments on diversity, racial equality and inclusivity.
The AAVLD was recognized for its advocacy to increase funding for the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) in the Farm Bill and in COVID-19 relief measures. The AAVLD values its partnership with AVMA and looks forward to working closely with the AVMA to advance our shared goals.
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Leland Carmichael, canine infectious disease expert, dies at 90 |
Wednesday, August 5, 2020 - 12:49pm |
Leland “Skip” Carmichael, Ph.D. ’59, the John M. Olin Professor of Virology Emeritus and an expert on canine infectious diseases, died July 27 in Ithaca. He was 90.
Carmichael played major roles in identifying, treating and preventing many canine infectious diseases. As a Cornell faculty member, he developed a canine parvovirus vaccine that curbed a global pandemic in the early 1980s.
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“He was one of Cornell’s all-time greats,” said Maurice White, professor emeritus of ambulatory medicine and Carmichael’s friend and former colleague. “When he came up for emeritus, one of the respondents said in a letter that Skip had done ‘more for the health of animals than anyone since [Louis] Pasteur.’”
“All of us who knew Skip will miss his sense of humor and quick wit,” added Dr. Lorin D. Warnick, Ph.D. ’94, the Austin O. Hooey Dean of Veterinary Medicine.
“We extend our condolences to his family members and many friends.”
Carmichael was born in 1930 in Los Angeles. He received his D.V.M. degree from the University of California, Davis, in 1956 before coming to Cornell, where he earned his doctorate from the Veterinary Virus Research Institute, now the Baker Institute for Animal Health at the College of Veterinary Medicine. He was immediately hired as a faculty member and served for more than 38 years before retiring in 1997.
In 1966 the disease canine brucellosis, a bacterial infection of the reproductive system, began appearing in beagles. Carmichael and colleagues were the first to describe the disease and identify the pathogen, which led to effective controls and treatments. Carmichael’s foundational work on canine adenovirus types 1 and 2 and canine herpesvirus also led to declines of those diseases.
His most significant achievement began in the summer of 1978, when a highly infectious canine parvovirus started to spread, eventually reaching pandemic proportions. With virologist Max Appel, a colleague at the institute, Carmichael perfected a modified live-virus vaccine three years later that is still used today.
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(L to R) Dr. Leland E. Carmichael, Dr. James A. Baker, and Dr. C. Hadley Stephenson, circa 1954.
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“He made many important scientific and practical advances through his research on canine infectious diseases,” said Scott Coonrod, director of the Baker Institute for Animal Health and the Judy Wilpon Professor of Epigenetics and Cancer Biology. “He was an unforgettable character who had a host of friends throughout the world. Skip was greatly admired and beloved by his many students and trainees.”
Carmichael was predeceased by his wife of more than 60 years, Mary Margaret, and is survived by three sons.
Due to the coronavirus, private services will be held; plans for a memorial service will be announced at a later date. Donations can be made to the Baker Institute for Animal Health either online or sent by mail to the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine, Box 39, 930 Campus Rd., Ithaca NY 14853.
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Note by: Patrick L. McDonough (Pat) MS, PhD
Hello All,
By now you may have hard of the passing of Dr. Leland (Skip) Carmichael whom I was lucky enough to call my friend. I first met Skip in 1973 when I came to Cornell Vet as a student In the Vet Micro Dept and he was at the JABIAH or as it was called then the Baker Institute.
Skip along with Dr. Dorsey Bruner discovered the then “new” bacterial agent of canine infectious infertility and abortion Brucella canis (Cornell Vet . 1968 Oct;48(4):579-92. Characteristics of a newly-recognized species of Brucella responsible for infectious canine abortions. L E Carmichael, D W Bruner); Dr. Sang Shin and Valerie Patten in our lab at the Cornell AHDC/DL worked tirelessly to apply, validate and use Dr. Leland Carmichael’s Brucella canis serology to the practical diagnostic application for canine brucellosis. To this day the lab at Cornell is a serological reference lab for the global veterinary community for the diagnosis of canine brucellosis. Over the years we were very lucky to have Skip as an expert infectious disease resource along the way. I will always remember Dr. Carmichael’s stories, especially during his lectures to the veterinary students; I was lucky enough to have taped some of his talks.
So I ask that you might pause today and reflect on the long way that veterinary infectious disease research has come and mostly on Skip Carmichael’s part in the adventure.
Best regards and stay safe out there,
Pat
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AAVLD Membership Drive Competition – Earn a Free Lunch for yourself or your Lab!! |
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Dear AAVLD Members:
We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe during this unprecedented crisis. We want to reach out to you on behalf of AAVLD as co-chairs of the membership committee. The strength of AAVLD as a corporate body largely depends on the commitment of its members and we want to heartily thank you for support of the organization over the years.
As you must have seen in the communications from Executive Director David Zeman, our annual meeting in October will be all virtual. Although we will all miss our usual networking through face-to-face interactions at the meeting, we appeal to you to plan to be involved in as many aspects of the meeting as possible. To make this convenient for our ever-working members, we are adjusting the time frame and enhancing viewing flexibility, allowing many sessions to be viewed at your convenience…more details to be released soon. So we hope to see most of you as virtual registrants!
Our vibrancy as an organization depends on a strong involved membership base. In this regard, we remind you of the ongoing membership drive competition which due to COVID issues, we have now extended the competition to September 30, 2021.
Competition Timeframe: January 2020 through September 30, 2021.
How to submit: The competition is open to individual members and to Laboratories. The goal is to grow our organization’s membership through the recruitment of new members and bringing back previous members whose membership has lapsed by two or more years. Each time you successfully sponsor a new member who subscribes, send your name (personal or institution) and the name of the new member to rozuna@aavld.org and jsaliki@uga.edu.
Prizes: Winners will be selected based solely on the number of new or renewing (after ≥ 2-year lapse) members recruited. The winners will be recognized at the AAVLD annual meeting during the Foundation Auction. There will be two prizes – one individual and one Lab:
· Individual prize: $100 Visa debit card: treat yourself for being an outstanding supporter!
· Laboratory prize: $500 Visa debit card: use these funds to celebrate with your lab mates!
We wish you continuous safety during the months ahead and look forward to meeting you online at the October annual meeting.
Debra Royal & Jerry Saliki
Co-Chairs, Membership Committee
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Virtual AAVLD/USAHA Annual Meeting
October 5 - 21, 2020
Do you have ideas to improve the AAVLD annual meeting? Contact David Zeman dzeman@aavld.org
Would you like to sponsor an event? Contact
Would you like to donate an item for the
What ever your contribution to the AAVLD mission, we need you!
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Whose Job Is It, Anyway?
This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have.
Source: Anonymous
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Tentative 2020 Virtual Meeting Schedule |
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Take advantage of the terrific AAVLD resources offered to our members |
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Veterinary Jobs - American Association of Veterinary...
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The American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians offers the top jobs available in Veterinary diagnostic labs. Search and apply to open positions or post jobs on the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians now.
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2021 Renewals are due by November 15!
'Membership is January to December'
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AAVLD membership is open to any individual interested in the disciplines and activities of veterinary diagnostic laboratories. Membership terms are by calendar year (January-December) and membership dues are payable by November 15th of the preceding year (to ensure inclusion in the annual membership directory, eligibility for committee involvement, and receipt of all six issues of the JVDI). Note: In order to receive a discounted rate for the Annual Meeting registration, you are required to be a current AAVLD Member. Renew your membership today!
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Did your membership Lapse? |
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Please select 'Renew Now' to access the Lapsed Membership renewal form. www.aavld.org ->Quick Links->Renew Now->here you can access the Lapsed Membership Form.
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Frequently Asked Questions Regarding AAVLD Membership:
When are my dues fee due?
They are due November 15 for the next calendar year. Many members pay for the next year when they register for the annual meeting. Lead time is needed to finalize committee appointments for the new year.
Does it matter who pays for my dues?
No. Your status will be the same with their resepective privileges whether you pay, your employer pays, or your Uncle Vinny.
Are Lab Accreditation dues different than Institutional/Agency membership dues?
Yes
· Laboratory Accreditation dues are different and separate and are related to accreditation only and go to fund the accreditation program only.
· Whether accredited or not, a Laboratory (or Institution/Agency) may additionally become an Institutional/Agency Member. By doing so they are supporting the broad mission of the AAVLD and these funds go to support CE and training and all other activities of the AAVLD. Institutional/Agency Members are highly valued members and are demonstrating leadership and belief in our organizational purpose.
Do Institutional/Agency Member labs have to pay for their employees individual dues?
No. A laboratory, institution, agency or department can become a member under this category even without signing up their employees. They are simply supporting the AAVLD mission with their dues payment. Some states are not allowed to pay for employee dues; and some states have budgetary restrictions.
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ARE YOU ENGAGED?
Committee work is the foundation of AAVLD's ability to fulfill its mission. If you are interested in joining a committee and contributing to its efforts, please email the appropriate committee chair.
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AAVLD & News Worthy Events |
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· AAVLD/USAHA Virtual Annual Conference, October 5-21, 2020,
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Thank You to our Exhibitors and Sponsors of the 2020 Annual Conference!
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The generous contributions and participation by our Exhibitors and Sponsors is a huge part of our conference success year after year. On behalf of the AAVLD, we would like to thank these companies for their commitment to our organization and helping us to achieve our mission.
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2020 Meeting Sponsors
to Date
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AAVLD Foundation Committee
Brett Webb- Cochair
Francois Elvinger- Cochair
John M. Adaska
Donal O'Toole
Tim Baszler
David Zeman
Christie Mayo
Kristy Pabilonia
Beate Crossley
François Elvinger
Pat Halbur
Brett Webb
Jamie Henningson
Kerry Sondgeroth
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The AAVLD Foundation is a non-profit foundation that raises funds for the advancement of veterinary diagnostic laboratory disciplines through scholarship programs, student travel support to our scientific meeting, guest lectures, seminars, professional awards and research programs. Contributions to the Foundation are tax-deductible 501(c)(3), and can be paid when you renew your AAVLD membership. Thank you for remembering your AAVLD Foundation!
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