It’s time to start gearing up for the 2025 AAVLD/USAHA Annual Meeting, held at the Gaylord Rockies Hotel in Aurora, CO, from October 30 to November 5, 2025! The Program Committee and the leadership of AAVLD and USAHA have been hard at work putting together a great meeting for you.

We are looking forward to hearing all of the great work that has been going on in our member labs and with other collaborative partners. The abstract submission portal is open now, with abstract submissions closing on June 27, 2025. We encourage both oral and poster in-person presentations. Trainee travel and trainee presentation awards are available to encourage excellence in diagnostic discipline as well as develop presentation skills. Please note that applicants for trainee presentation awards must submit either a recording of their presentation (for oral presentations) or a PDF of their poster (for poster presentations) by October 9^th, 2025.

In addition, and new for this year, a staff travel award is available to a clerical or technical staff member interested in attending the meeting and engaging more with AAVLD. The awardee receives travel funding plus a one-year membership to AAVLD. A letter of intent from the applicant and a letter of support from a sponsor at an AAVLD-member laboratory is required.

The theme for this year’s plenary session is “What’s old is new again”, and will look at how diagnostic tools/conditions have evolved, changed, or been repurposed. Topics will include new uses for electron microscopy, new uses for LIMS data, utilization of cell culture for sequencing, and more!

We have many interesting symposia and workshops for you, including “Cytology for Anatomic Pathologists”, “International Experiences with High Consequence Animal Disease Outbreaks & Response”, “Best Practices for Submitting, Reviewing, and Publishing Manuscripts in JVDI”, and “Using Data Analytics to Reduce Turnaround Time in Veterinary Diagnostics”.

We’re looking forward to engaging with you scientifically and socially in Colorado to support your professional growth and scientific collaborations. In addition to the scientific and plenary sessions, you can look forward to an engaging keynote session at the President’s dinner, the awards luncheon, committee meetings, exhibitor show, coffee meetings, and meals with friends.

See you in a few months!

Ashley Hill

2025 Annual Meeting Program Committee Chair and AAVLD President-Elect

The Executive and Government Relations Committees joined USAHA in DC in late March to meet with government agencies involved in animal health. At the time of the meeting, there was a lot of concern about the status of positions in those federal agencies that affect our ability to test for animal diseases. We are closely monitoring the reductions in force and are extremely concerned about the status of positions in key agencies, and the effects the reductions in force will have on our lab's mission. On the positive side, when speaking with staffers of the House and Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee, NAHLN and FDA Vet-LIRN positions have thus far been protected. Concerns linger regarding loss of NAHLN staff due to the Deferred Resignation Program (accelerated retirement option), and loss of support staff and senior leadership in FDA; this brings questions about how these programs will be administered in the future.  

A key message that we heard in a recent meeting focuses on how interconnected all of APHIS and VS services are and how devastating large funding cuts are to agencies that already have problems with staffing. Beyond 10% reductions, services will have to be cut, yet all of the services depend on one another to function.  To respond appropriately to emergencies, like HPAI and emerging threats, we have to have the lab infrastructure for surveillance and disease detection. Our international trade requires a credible lab system for us to prove that we’re free of disease or have the disease under control. Without NAHLN and the work that many of you do on a daily basis, these things aren’t possible. Many thanks to AVMA Government Relations Division, our lobbyist Brad Mollet, Bruce Akey, Pat Halbur, Keith Poulsen, and other leaders for getting the word to Congress about the importance of NAHLN and NADPRP. The advocacy work will be critical for some time, so if you have any questions about how you can help efforts, please reach out to Bruce or Keith as co-chairs of the AAVLD Government Relations Committee. I know that many of you may be looking at significant budget cuts as a result of the loss of federal funding, but please recognize how important your work is to animal health.

Tanya LeRoith, DVM, PhD, AAVLD President

A highly pathogenic version of avian influenza virus, commonly referred to as bird flu, was detected in wild birds in the United States in early 2022. In spring 2024, multiple states, including Colorado, began reporting outbreaks in dairy cattle, a concerning development because the virus was circulating in a new species.

Testing is critical to controlling spread of the virus, and Colorado State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, or VDL, is playing a key role, regularly testing samples from birds, cattle and other species.

Understanding how disease is affecting wild and domestic animals is a mission of the lab in Fort Collins, and that information is essential for animal and public health officials, food-animal producers and others to respond effectively to halt the spread of disease and curb potential impacts to human health.

Recently, the lab has been detecting this version of avian influenza virus in domestic cats. “In Colorado, we’ve detected a lot of cat positives,” said Dr. Kristy Pabilonia, executive director of the VDL. “Understanding the spread of the virus in cats has been one of our focuses. It’s very concerning because these are people’s pets.”

Avian influenza viruses have been detected for decades in wild waterfowl and shorebirds, such as ducks and geese. These birds are considered the “reservoir species” for the virus, hosts that harbor and transmit the pathogen. Some influenza viruses, however, can spill over and infect other populations. The current H5N1 virus, scientifically known as H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b, can infect wild birds, domestic poultry and mammals, including humans.

Commercial poultry operations have been hit particularly hard. Producers have lost entire flocks to the virus due to high mortality and culling, a response to stop the disease from spreading. In addition to dairy cattle, there have been sporadic infections in other mammals, and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 70 reported cases in humans since April 2024, including one death. The human cases have been the result of people interacting with infected animals, according to the CDC.

Since the dairy cattle outbreaks began last spring, the CSU laboratory has been testing samples daily, running as many as 600 samples on a busy day. The lab works closely with state and federal agencies, including the Colorado Department of Agriculture, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on testing submissions and reporting.

The CSU lab is part of the USDA’s National Animal Health Laboratory Network, a collection of more than 64 public veterinary labs across the country, and it works closely with the network on testing. SOURCE spoke with Pabilonia about the most recent influenza outbreaks. She is a microbiologist, veterinarian and an expert on poultry diseases. Pabilonia has dedicated a large portion of her career to studying avian influenza viruses.

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Thank you, Committee Chairs

Committee Annual Meeting Agendas Submission due September 15

Please use the provided link within this PDF Portfolio to access:

• Committee Chair reporting instructions and URL links to electronic forms
• A letter from the AAVLD meeting coordinator, Kaylin Taylor
• AAVLD Committee SOP

'2025 AAVLD COMMITTEE CHAIR PACKAGE'

Please download the PDF Portfolio to your computer->Save->Open PDF saved on your computer->

Four documents are enclosed.

March 2025

Click here for March issue

Stay Connected:

The Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation is the official journal of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians. The mission of the Journal is to educate by informing readers of progress in veterinary laboratory medicine and related fields of endeavor. The key objectives of the JVDI are to promote the science of veterinary laboratory medicine and the betterment of animal and public health. JVDI fully supports diversity, equity, and inclusion in our publishing activities.

Editor-in-chief, Dr. Grant Maxie / https://journals.sagepub.com/home/VDI

I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. ~Isaac Newton

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.~ Charles Darwin

Functions of AAVLD Committees

Committees serve multiple functions that are essential to the AAVLD mission. This includes dissemination of the latest scientific information that will advance the many disciplines engaged with diagnostic medicine, including:

AAVLD Committee enrollment form

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• Annual Meeting Proceediings
• View all abrstracts and Posters
• View notes from Plenary Sessions
• See student Testimonials

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Veterinary Jobs - American Association of Veterinary...

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.

Contact: rozuna@aavld.org

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.

See Winners of the 2024 Student Travel and

Student Competitive Awardees

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Go to AAVLD Foundation Auction More details ...

THANK YOU AAVLD members for your generous support of the AAVLD Scholarship Banquet and Auction. Last year, we raised $15,350.00. These funds allow us to sponsor student/staff travel and other organizational awards. We expose many young lab scientists to exciting career opportunities at animal health diagnostic laboratories. Thank you, thank you, thank you.