The American Association of Bovine Practitioners’ (AABP) 2024 57th Annual Conference Sept. 12-14 in Columbus, Ohio, demonstrated how today’s bovine veterinarians are “challenging the norm” of their traditional thinking. Beef and dairy veterinarians, students and veterinary technicians gathered for one of the largest annual conferences to date for cutting-edge continuing education. Preconference seminars were held earlier in the week for in-depth instruction on a variety of topics.
“This year’s conference was a great success, and the program committee did an exceptional job putting together world class CE to help our members ‘Challenge the Norm’,” says AABP Past President Dr. Michael Capel. “This year’s new welfare topics provided attendees with thoughtful and inspirational content, always keeping a focus on what is best for the cow.” Capel adds that the Hot Topics session was immensely popular as represented by the AVMA information on the new depopulation guidelines and a roundtable of exceptional speakers who helped members understand the current state of the HPAI outbreak in the U.S. dairy herd. “AABP continues to be at the forefront of issues that impact bovine practitioners, and continues to work tirelessly to educate, advocate and support our members.”
Capel notes that the AABP’s commitment to the next generation was also clear this year as the AABP distributed $85,000 in financial support for students to go on externships and seek out educational opportunities. Additionally, $324,000 was awarded to students in the form of scholarships. “AABP has a strong commitment to our future colleagues, not only financially, but also by working continuously to create an environment where students feel welcome, supported and valued,” he says. “The enthusiasm and energy of our student members is infectious, and they will be instrumental in helping us continue to ‘Challenge the Norm’.”
Keynote speaker Dr. Shawn Baker, author of The Carnivore Diet, spoke on the benefits of animal-based diets. Baker, an MD, is the co-founder of Revero (a personalized nutrition therapy company), an orthopedic surgeon, a world leading authority on treating disease with medical nutritional therapy, an Amazon best-selling author, a world champion athlete, an international speaker, podcast host and consultant. Baker’s book is a revolutionary, paradigm-breaking nutritional strategy that takes contemporary conventional nutrition science theory and “dumps it on its head”.
Once again, attendance at the 2024 AABP Annual Conference was excellent, with more than 1,000 veterinarians and over 300 students in attendance, says AABP President Dr. Dave Sjeklocha. “The AABP Annual Conference is a great place to learn from the best, get caught up with colleagues and make new friends,” he says “‘Challenging the Norm’ was this year’s theme and I think it was very timely. It challenged us to pay attention when we catch ourselves saying, ‘Well, we’ve always done it this way…’ and ask ourselves, ‘Why?’. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Shawn Baker, embodies that thought process and has challenged the norm regarding the human diet. We can apply his approach in our profession, our daily work, our lives and even our relationships – personal and professional. The program committee put together a challenging and thought-provoking program that included clinical and technical skills, the newest research, animal welfare, practice management and other relevant industry topics such as HPAI.”
The 2024 conference gave in-person attendees up to 24.25 hours of continuing education on beef, dairy, clinical stills, welfare topics, practice management, student/new graduate topics, practice tips and other sessions, plus preconference seminars and clinical forums. Awards, a scholarship auction and a 5K were also highlights of the conference.
“I always look forward to welcoming our colleagues each year,” says AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich. “I am incredibly thankful for our staff and volunteers who work many hours to provide a great experience for our attendees from the CE to the meals and events. Challenging the norm was a great theme and can be implemented in our everyday personal and professional lives. I hope each attendee was able to take home information to help them meet this goal.”
Smartphone technology was heavily used at the 2024 conference with attendees having the ability to scan QR codes for schedules, auction item viewing, donation opportunities and more. The Slido app was also used for attendees to ask questions during presentations and for presenters to conduct polls on the fly during their presentations.
Gingrich shares these stats from the 2024 AABP Annual Conference:
• 1,067 AABP members
• 302 veterinary students
• Offered 8 preconference seminars and two seminars during the conference, 7 clinical forum breakfast talks and a symposium for food animal educators as well as a student lameness symposium
• 82 Canadian attendees and 24 attendees from 10 additional countries
• Close to 90 exhibitors with 288 exhibitor representatives
• Almost 120 5K Stampede Fun Run participants
Introduction of the 2024 AABP vice president candidates, Dr. Elizbeth Quesnell Kohtz and Dr. Jen Roberts gave members a chance to get to know their potential leadership.
Find more conference recaps and photos on the AABP Facebook page.
Next up will be the 8th Annual AABP Recent Graduate Conference Feb. 14-15, 2025 in Norman, Okla.
The 2025 58th AABP Annual Conference will be held Sept. 11-13, 2025, in Omaha, Neb.
AABP is a membership-based, not-for-profit organization serving cattle veterinary medicine professionals across the United States, Canada and other countries. Visit https://aabp.org and like us on Facebook.
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