AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich provides a wrap-up from the 56th AABP Annual Conference, held in Milwaukee, Wis., September 21-23, 2023. We had a total of nearly 1,500 attendees at the conference including attendees, guests, students and exhibitor booth representatives which is consistent with our pre-pandemic attendance numbers. Gingrich offers a special thanks to AABP staff, the program committee, moderators, and the chairs of the conference which include Dr. Michael Capel and Dr. Dave Sjeklocha.  

If you attended the conference, you can access your CE certificate by logging in to the AABP website, hover over your name in the upper right corner and select "My CE Certificates" where you can review, edit, print or save your certificate as a PDF document for your files.  

All conference sessions are recorded and available at no charge to AABP members. Access recordings of all annual conferences, recent graduate conferences and webinars by clicking on the purple cow-head logo at the bottom of any AABP webpage after logging in or download the free "BCI Mobile Conference App".  

Gingrich reviews some of the feedback from the conference including the rating from respondents for quality of the conference. 91% of attendees rated the conference 4 or 5 stars. He also thanks our sponsors of the conference, including the sponsors of our major meal and social events which includes Boehringer-Ingelheim, Diamond V, Zoetis, Vaxxinova-Newport Labs, and Endovac.  

Nearly $100,000 was raised for the Foundation at the conference and we encourage members who still would like to give to the AABP Foundation and select one of the funds, please do so by visiting the donation link or contact the AABP office.  

Gingrich also reviews some of the major board activities from the AABP Board of Directors meeting at the conference. The AVMA shared that over 50% of their PAC funds have been spent this year advocating for passage of legislation to maintain access to xylazine. Please support the AVMA PAC with a donation to ensure that AVMA has the resources to advocate for bovine veterinarians. If you are an AVMA member, visit the PAC site today and donate, send a letter to your Congressional representatives, or sign-up for advocacy updates.  

The AABP board also provided advocacy for the establishment of a VCPR through in-person means only and supplemented though virtual or electronic methods and the support of utilizing credentialed veterinary technicians in bovine practice instead of the creation of an unknown mid-level practitioner. AABP has created the "Utilization of Credentialed Veterinary Technicians in Bovine Practice" task force to develop a guideline to advocate what veterinary technicians can perform in bovine practice, what skills should only be performed by a veterinarian, and defining direct and indirect supervision as it pertains to bovine practice.  To review the background information for the task force, visit this link. AABP members interested in serving should submit a CV/resume and letter of interest to Dr. Fred Gingrich by emailing fred@aabp.org.

Planning for the 57th AABP Annual Conference in Columbus, Ohio. September 12-14, 2024 will be completed on November 4, so if you have ideas and suggestions, please send to Dr. Gingrich or the conference chair, Dr. Dave Sjeklocha at david.sjeklocha@merck.com.