Brodersen receives AASV's top honor

Perry, Iowa­

The American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) recently doled out a number of honors and scholarships at its annual meeting in March.

Practitioner of the year

Dr. Ron Brodersen, Hartington, Neb., was named the 2003 Swine Practitionerof the Year by AASV.

The award, given annually since 1977, recognizes swine practitionerswho demonstrate exceptional service to their veterinary clients. It is theassociation's highest honor.

Brodersen practices swine production medicine at the Whole Hog HealthCenter in Hartington. His practice services swine farms throughout the Midwest.

Brodersen has been active in both veterinary and producer organizationsthroughout his career. He is a past chair of the AASV Foundation. For manyyears, he has served on the Nebraska Pork Producers Pseudorabies Task Force,and completed terms on the Nebraska Veterinary Medical Association's continuingeducation, legislative and disease control committees.

Meritorious service

Dr. Tim Trayer of Denver, Penn., received the AASV Meritorious ServiceAward, in recognition of the time and effort he has consistently given tothe association.

Trayer is founder and partner of Agricultural Veterinary Associates,an eight-person veterinary practice that focuses primarily on swine anddairy production medicine. He has been involved in a number of researchstudies on swine respiratory disease agents.

In the 1990s, Trayer served as the AASV delegate to the American VeterinaryMedical Association. He was also the publications chair for the association'sboar stud guidelines from 1994-1997. Currently, he is on the AASV Boar StudCommittee.

Memorial award

Dr. Robert Friendship was awarded the Howard Dunne Memorial Award byAASV. The award recognizes an AASV member who has made important contributionsand provided outstanding service to the association and the swine industry.

Friendship is a professor in the department of population medicine atthe Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph in Canada, where headvises a number of postgraduate veterinary students, and teaches graduateand undergraduate courses in swine health management and production. Healso conducts research in the areas of swine reproductive health, growthperformance of newly weaned piglets, and studies prebiotics and probiotics.

For many years, he has been the editor of the Ontario Swine ResearchReview, co-editor of the swine production management series for the Compendiumof Continuing Education, and creator and executive editor of Pig Pens, aswine research newsletter. Friendship coordinated the swine research programat the University of Guelph from 1992-2002. Prior to joining the facultyas a lecturer in 1979, Friendship was a private practitioner in Seaforth,Ontario.

Scholarships

In other news: The AASV Foundation awarded $19,000 worth of scholarshipsto eight veterinary students. A panel of judges representing private practice,academia and industry selected scholarship recipients, based on severalcriteria that included communications skills in both the writing of theabstract and the presentation of the case report, and applicability of theresearch to swine medicine.

Jason Kelly received a $5,000 scholarship for best student presentation.Kelly is a fourth-year veterinary student at Purdue University. His presentationwas titled "Weekly growth and carcass response to feeding ractopamine(Paylean®)." Alpharma Animal Health provided the financial supportfor the award.

Seven veterinary students were also recognized by the AASV Foundationfor their student presentations with $2,000 scholarships provided by EliLilly and Company, on behalf of Elanco Animal Health: Dana Beckler, Universityof Minnesota; Molita Birchen, University of Illinois; Heather Gunn, Universityof Guelph; Erin Johnson, University of Illinois; Keith Kinsley, Universityof Minnesota; Adam Moeser, North Carolina State University; and RaphaelVanderstichel, University of Prince Edward Island.