From the Editor, July 2024

As I write this, we’re settling in for a heat wave and I anticipated leading off with an article regarding heat mitigation, or perhaps the impacts of heat stress on livestock. But I was just made aware of an issue that I think many of you will find important to address. Per a letter posted by the Directors of the Food Animal Residue Avoidance Database (FARAD) and reproduced below, FARAD is in jeopardy of losing its funding and shutting down operations as early as 2025. The Directors are asking for anyone that is able and willing to contact their state representatives to do so as soon as possible and show your support for this program.

I suspect that many of you have utilized the services of FARAD in the past and have grown to depend on FARAD’s input in a pinch. For those of you unfamiliar with FARAD, it is a university-based program supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), with a mission to protect the U.S. food supply against accidental or intentional contamination of animal-derived foods so that they are safe for human consumption. FARAD maintains and provides an array of resources for veterinarians, extension specialists, farmers, regulatory personnel and others who are the stewards of our nation’s expansive commercial food animal industries and the growing number of small backyard livestock operations. Since 1982 this program has provided real time support service to veterinarians and related stakeholders. In 2023 alone, FARAD scientists directly assisted with 5,833 inquiries (33% increase from 2022) impacting 5.8 million animals (68% increase from 2022) representing dairy, beef, swine, poultry, small ruminant, and honeybee production systems.

More information regarding FARAD can be found on their website, and you can view an AVMA position statement (opens as a pdf) supporting continued funding of $2.5 million for FARAD to carry out its vital services. If FARAD is something you deem worthwhile, I would suggest letting your state representatives know sooner than later given that the Farm Bill is currently under consideration.

Moving on . . . I am happy to say that we had several poster and oral presentations delivered by WSU faculty and graduate students at the recent American Dairy Science Association Annual Meeting held in Palm Beach, Florida. The abstracts are listed below and highlight areas of ongoing research within WSU Veterinary Medicine Extension and FDIU.

I also wanted to use this space to make a brief mention of a honey bee resource that was just brought to my attention.  Michigan State University and collaborators have developed an excellent site regarding Diagnostic tools for honey bee diseases.  For those of us new to the honey bee game this is a phenomenally practical guide.

Finally, I thought I’d mention that I recently had the pleasure of being named the Director of the WSU CVM Veterinary Continuing Education program. This role provides the opportunity to tie together the livestock work Dr. Figueiredo and I do within Veterinary Medicine Extension to the broader landscape of all veterinary CE. Of course, the reality is that our behind-the-scenes administrative assistant, Katy Heaton, keeps both the CE and Extension machines well-oiled and running smoothly! That’s my segue into the fact that Katy and I hit the road the other day to drop off a survey to local practitioners asking for input into what CE folks would like to see offered through WSU. Please take a few minutes and fill out this survey to let us know how we can expand and improve our CE offerings across species and topics, and we’ll do our best to accommodate. I’ll leave it at that. I hope that as you read this you’re out of the heat and enjoying a cold beverage of your choice. By the time the next newsletter comes out we’ll probably all be wondering where the warm weather went . . . so enjoy it while we have it!