It's award season at AAEP's 55th Annual Convention

Las Vegas

-- The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) announced a new president, new directors, a new new board member, and a slew of award winners during its 55th Annual Convention Dec. 5 to 9.

New president

Nat White, DVM, was inducted as the 2010 AAEP president at the President's Luncheon Dec. 8. Dr. White is the Jean Ellen Shehan Professor and director of the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. He is a former chair of the AAEP's Student Relations and Foundation Advisory committees and a recipient of the AAEP Distinguished Service Award.

New directors

New appointments to the AAEP board of directors include John A. Stick, DVM, Michigan State University's large animal hospital chief of staff; Jay Addison, DVM, a racetrack practitioner and consultant in Louisiana and Kentucky; Josie Traub-Dargatz, DVM, a professor of equine medicine at the Animal Population Health Institute at Colorado State University; Roger Rees, DVM, a founding partner of South Valley Animal Clinic in South Jordan, Utah, as a director at large; and Bill Brewer, former heard of the American Quarter Horse Association, as the equine industry board member.

Education awards

AAEP gave Distinguished Educator awards to John Thomas Vaughan, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, and the late Dean Scoggins, DVM. Vaughan and Scoggins' family accepted the awards.Vaughan is a former dean of Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine. His name adorns the John Thomas Vaughan Large Animal Teaching Hospital facility and the J.T. Vaughan Equine Conference at Auburn. Vaughan has served as president of AAEP and the American College of Veterinary Surgeons.Scoggins, who passed away in 2006, was a professor at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. His innovative topics ahead of their time in the past decades included practice management, alternative therapies, and equine dental care.

Service award

Former AAEP president Scott Palmer, VMD, Dipl. ABVP, of Clarksburg, Va., received the Distinguished Service Award. Palmer is the director and staff surgeon at New Jersey Equine Clinic and has worked to promote Thoroughbred racing in the public eye as well as help to craft veterinary recommendations for racehorses.

Equine welfare award

The AAEP's equine welfare award, the Lavin Cup, went to the North American Equine Ranching Information Council (NAERIC), a nonprofit association of 64 family ranchers in North Dakota and Canada.

The NAERIC members manage broodmares that produce quality horses as well as provide pregnant mares' urine (PMU). Estrogen is extracted from PMU to produce hormone therapies for menopausal women. The group also manages a placement fund to place mares no longer used for PMU production.

Lifelong dedication awards

The AAEP gave two members lifelong dedication awards for their work in promoting equine welfare and the equine veterinary profession: C. Wayne McIlwraith, BVSc, PhD, professor and director of equine orthopedic research at Colorado State University; and Tom R. Lenz, DVM, MS, a former AAEP president and current member of three AAEP committees.