The AAVN E-News is now being distributed to all of our friends and contacts!

Learn More About AAVN Membership Here!

Message from the President

Megan Sprinkle, DVM

Dear Colleagues,

AAVN is always busy during the fall! 

We are working on communications strategies, planning CE for 2024 (including a few new additions!) and getting our programs for student members and student chapters up and running.  

So much of this work is done by our capable committees! This year, we have three new committee chairs (Ashley Self, Student Chapters; Jonathan Stockman, Education; and Dan Su, Outreach) and many amazing returning volunteer members who serve as part of these groups. 

We are also interested in new ideas and fresh perspectives as we tackle these tasks. Simply stated, we need YOU!

I hope you will consider joining an AAVN committee or learning more about potential volunteer service with the organization.  Volunteering with AAVN has helped me to grow, both personally and professionally. I have also met many amazing colleagues (and friends) through this experience.

Details about committees are below. Please reach out to us anytime at aavnexecutive@gmail.com to learn more about how you can help.

As always, If you have thoughts, suggestions or questions about AAVN, please do not hesitate to be in touch at aavnexecutive.org

Best,  

Megan Sprinkle, DVM

for a wonderful webinar - focused on Technician Utilization - on Tuesday, September 12.

This session was recorded and is available to registered attendees for 2 weeks. AAVN members can also request the recording link - email us at aavnexecutive@gmail.com

2nd Place Blog Competition Winner

Madison K. Hopper

Louisiana State University

School of Veterinary Medicine

Class of 2025

The Dangers of Social Media, Buzz Words, and Marketing Ploys on Veterinary Nutrition 

While social media has been very beneficial in many areas of veterinary medicine, there are also areas where social media can have a devastating impact—veterinary nutrition being a prime example. A lot of pet food companies utilize social media to spread the word on their products and increase sales. Some companies buy sponsored ads; others pay social media influencers to promote their foods. Certain companies even spend more to promote their products online and through social media campaigns than on the actual science behind their foods. Engagement and reach are two of the biggest goals with social media usage. Attention grabbing buzz words and savvy marketing ploys are often used to increase engagement and sales. In pet food marketing, words such as “holistic,” “natural,” and “cruelty-free” are commonly seen. Additionally, the marketing of raw meat diets, grain-free, and vegan diets are on the rise. As seen in the marketing of human foods, these words are trendy and have pet owners more willing to purchase these pet foods because they believe they are purchasing the cleanest, healthiest, and most ethically produced foods for their pets. Unfortunately, these promotional tactics and words are no more than a clever marketing ploy aimed to take advantage of caring pet owners. 

Volunteer Your Time with AAVN

Several AAVN committees are seeking new members!

For more details or to sign up email aavnexecutive@gmail.com

The Education Committee plans the Clinical Nutrition & Research Symposium, held in conjunction with the ACVIM Forum each year. This group selects keynote speakers and manages the abstract review process. The Education Committee also chooses speakers and topics for the annual webinar series. Meetings are held every 4-6 weeks via Zoom.

The Outreach Committee is focused on member recruitment and retention and our communications strategies, including the e-newsletter, social media, the list serve and the website. The committee includes the e-newsletter editor(s). Meetings are held every 4-6 weeks via Zoom.

The Student Chapter Committee organizes events and activities for AAVN student chapters and student members, including the student webinar series, a virtual Town Hall & Trivia Night and a student session at the annual Symposium. The committee oversees the approval of new student chapters and ensures that existing chapters are in compliance with AAVN policies. This group also serves as reviewers for student representative applications and the blog competition. Meetings are held every 6-8 weeks via Zoom.

Member Spotlight:

Meet Our New E-Newsletter Editor

Craig Datz, DVM, MS, DABVP, DACVIM (Nutrition)

Ashley Self, our Member Spotlight writer, is working on some other projects this month so we decided to ask our incoming E-newsletter Editor, Dr. Craig Datz, to answer a few get-to-know-you questions and he kindly obliged.

How long have you been a member of the AAVN and what other roles have you served in the organization?  I joined AAVN when I started my nutrition training a little over 20 years ago. I rotated through the officer positions starting about 10 years ago. 

As someone who is double boarded, how would you say your nutrition training helped your veterinary career?  

I started my nutrition residency while working in the Community Practice service at the University of Missouri-College of Veterinary Medicine. Once I completed my certification, I was able to consider opportunities in academia, industry, and practice. My experience as a Diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners has helped me with nutritional case consults, especially complicated ones that involve internal medicine, surgery, and other disciplines.

You have worked in the pet food industry for a number of years - can you tell AAVN members about 1 or 2 cool opportunities you've experienced in the past 5-7 years?  I’ve been able to travel around the U.S. and even internationally for a variety of purposes including visiting veterinary colleges, attending conferences, hosting guests at formal and informal events, and occasionally sneaking in some sightseeing and learning about different cultures. Most of all, I’ve appreciated getting to know colleagues in the nutrition field and collaborating on ways to improve nutritional awareness.

When you think of CE, what is your ideal CE experience?  Definitely experiential learning instead of traditional lectures. I think a lot of us have developed varying degrees of “Zoom fatigue”. Wherever possible, I prefer teaching through labs and interactive discussions. For example, I recently did a session with a group of veterinary students where the whole hour was simply Q&A (“ask me anything!”). Of course, it’s difficult to get approval for CE without a set of slides and lecture notes. If anyone has led or attended a “non-traditional” CE session on nutrition, please let us know and we can take that into consideration for future AAVN offerings!

Why did you volunteer to be the AAVN E-newsletter editor? What do you hope to accomplish?  Dr. Sarah Abood has been a rock star for many years as the editor, in addition to serving the organization in countless other ways. I offered to give her a little break in her volunteerism although I suspect she’ll stay quite involved.

I would love to receive feedback from members and anyone who reads the newsletter every month about content they enjoy reading, what they may skip over, and suggestions for future articles or features. We want the newsletter to be useful and relevant (and not marked as spam!).

On the Menu:

Veterinary Nutrition Facts

from the Experts



Calling veterinary nutrition specialists, PhDs in animal nutrition, industry experts and VTN (Nutrition) colleagues!. We have started a new initiative to collect tidbits of nutrition advice from all of you. 

Share a tiny piece of your expertise here

From there, our social media team will curate a graphic for your submission. We soft launched this program earlier this summer and cannot wait to see YOUR entry!

Please take a moment to complete this form!

Member Research in the News

Dr. Katie Tolbert has been busy in 2023! She may almost seem like a magician as she divides her time between her job at the Texas A& M Gastroenterology Laboratory while pursuing her nutrition residency at the University of Tennessee.

Dr. Tolbert recently collaborated with researchers at several institutions to publish work in the areas of chronic enteropathy, acute disc disease, canine cancer, and markers of exocrine pancreatic stimulation.

Gould, E. N., Szule, J. A., Wilson-Robles, H., Steiner, J. M., Lennon, E. M., & Tolbert, M. K. (2023). Esomeprazole induces structural changes and apoptosis and alters function of in vitro canine neoplastic mast cells. Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology, 256, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetimm.2022.110539.

Mehra, J. M., Tolbert, M. K., Guadiano, P., Steiner, J. M., Moore, G. E., & Lewis, M. J. (2023). Double‐blinded placebo‐controlled clinical trial of prophylactic omeprazole in dogs treated surgically for acute thoracolumbar intervertebral disc extrusion. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 37(2), 586-597, https://doi.org/10.1111/jvim.16642.

Langlois, D. K., Pritchard, J. C., Tolbert, M. K., Jergens, A. E., Block, G., Hanzlicek, A. S., ... & Jablonski, S. A. (2023). Clinical utility of an immunoglobulin A‐based serological panel for the diagnosis of chronic enteropathy in dogs. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 37(2), 446-454, https://doi.org/10.1111/jvim.16636.

Zhang, Y., Kirk, C. A., Tolbert, M. K., Steiner, J. M., Donohoe, D., Murphy, M., ... & Witzel-Rollins, A. (2023). Impact of fatty acid composition on markers of exocrine pancreatic stimulation in dogs. Plos one, 18(8), e0290555, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290555.

We’re glad to recognize AAVN members who have successfully published an original research article, textbook chapter, case report, or review paper. Do you have research to share? Contact us at aavnexecutive@gmail.com

ESVCN Congress, Vila Real, Portugal

The 27th Congress of the European Society of Veterinary Comparative Nutrition (ESVCN) took place at the University of Tras-os-Montes (utad) in Vila Real, Portugal from September 7-9. The residency class of the ECVCN was held two days prior and both events were well attended by colleagues from across the globe.

Dr. Adronie Verbrugghe, nutritionist at the Ontario Veterinary College, was accompanied by current graduate students and residents, as well as 2 former residents. Dr. Verbrugghe kindly shared a few photos below.

Hannah Godfrey (above) University of Guelph PhD candidate, gave oral and poster presentations. Dr. Erico Ribeiro (below) attended the resident class and gave an oral presentation in the Congress.

Left to Right: Dr. Francisco Pablanno (Nutrition Resident), Hannah Godfrey (PhD candidate), Dr. Caitlin Grant (former Nutrition Resident), Dr. Adronie Verbrugghe (Associate Professor, Ontario Veterinary College and Dip ECVCN), Dr. Erico Ribeiro (Nutrition Resident), Dr. Sarah Dodd, Dip ECVCN.

“After attending ESVCN, I was once again profoundly impressed by the depth of knowledge and innovation displayed by the presenters, which left me with a renewed sense of enthusiasm and appreciation for our specialty and increased my interest in comparative nutrition. It was an amazing experience to be able to learn so much in such a great place like Vila Real and in the company of so many colleagues who share a passion for veterinary nutrition.”

Francisco Poblanno Silva, DVSc Candidate, ECVCN Resident, University of Guelph

Attendees got into the spirit of a 1920’s theme for their gala on the closing night of the Congress

For those interested in experiencing this unique comparative nutrition Congress in-person, the venue will be in Belfast, Ireland from

September 11-13, 2024.

Cats are vulnerable to malnutrition and often undergo stress which can worsen inappetence while hospitalized. The 2022 ISFM Consensus Guidelines on the Management of the Inappetent Hospitalized Cat aim to provide clinicians/students with the tools needed to identify cats needing nutritional support and guidance on when to intervene to prevent malnutrition. This webinar will review these guidelines while highlighting cat friendly practices and medical management (e.g. appetite stimulants) to improve

caloric intake and discuss assisted feeding strategies, when appropriate.

This program is FREE but registration is required.

WSAVA has a FREE 4-module course focused on key aspects of WSAVA’s Global Nutrition Guidelines.

This course is available in four languages: English, Spanish, Russian and Mandarin Chinese.

To learn more click here

CAVN 4th Annual Live Webinar Series

Each Wednesday in October at

7 pm EDT join a CAVN expert as they discuss a variety of topics in veterinary nutrition.

For speakers and topics click here

Registration is Now Open!

To sign up click here

Save the Date!

European Workshop on Equine Nutrition

July 1-4, 2024

Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Oslo, Norway

Look out for information on abstract submission, conference schedule and registration in Autumn 2023 on the EWEN website.