From the editor
Spring is in the air, so I thought I’d begin by thanking everyone who attended our CE Spring Conference a few weeks ago! It started off with a bang from our Bustad Lecturer, Dr. Katy Schroeder (Associate professor, Department of Counseling Education, University of Iowa). Dr. Schroeder is an Equine Specialist in Mental Health and Learning and Therapeutic Riding Instructor and spoke on the emerging scientific research on the human–horse relationship. In particular, she underscored the importance of understanding the horse’s perceptual experience. Overall, she did an incredible job celebrating the legacy of the Lecture’s namesake, Dr. Leo Bustad. In fact, she interspersed a few quotes from Dr. Bustad’s speeches which made me take a second look at the book on my shelf comprised of selected speeches of Dr. Bustad entitled, “Compassion: Our last great hope.”
Within the pages of this book Dr. Bustad’s formative experiences come to light including his time spent as a prisoner of war during WWII. He waxed philosophical and tackled some tough subjects with unvarnished directness, yet throughout his speeches he was deeply committed to the founding principle of the book: Compassion. I ended up reading the book cover-to-cover and learned that Dr. Bustad was so much more than a WSU CVM Dean and one of the founding fathers of the human-animal-bond concept. For example, I had no idea that he held a special place in his heart for pigs! Although he suffered unimaginably as a POW and lost a 34-year-old daughter who was a volunteer teacher in West Africa, his resilience was evident in every speech alongside his quirky humor and relentless drive to improve conditions for animals and humans alike.
The poignant takeaways within Dr. Bustad’s book are numerous, but I’ll wrap this up by quoting directly from the final chapter entitled, “Compassion: Our Last Great Hope.” Dr. Bustad believed that, “Compassion is suffering with, having empathy with or feeling for. It includes joy as well as grief. It works from a strength born out of shared weakness and an awareness of the mutuality of all living things. The bond is not only between people, but also between people and animals. Compassion is the feeling of togetherness and, therefore, it urges celebration as we forget problems and difficulties. The compassionate person lets go of ego, of individual problems, of personal difficulties in order to remember our common base.” He certainly set a high bar, but I believe it’s one worth reaching for . . .
Ok so aside from that soliloquy, I don’t want to forget to mention that we have an upcoming webinar covering aspects of the recent Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease Virus (EHDV) issues in our region. This webinar is FREE thanks to WSU Continuing Veterinary Education & the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (WADDL). It will be held from 6-7 p.m. PST Wednesday, April 29. Event info and registration. Experts at WADDL will present the current data collected at WADDL related to EHDV infections in wild cervids followed by abortions, neonatal deaths, and neurologically inappropriate bovine calves in Washington and Idaho. They will cover reported clinical signs, gross and microscopic lesions, and ongoing work in serotyping and serology.
While we’re on the subject of CE offerings, I should also mention that we have the dates set for our next three conferences and an upcoming webinar:
- Veterinary Medicine Extension Webinar Series
- Impacts of Wildfire Smoke on Livestock with Dr. Amy Skibiel, University of Idaho, June 3, 2026
- Fall Conference – November 7, 2026, 3 (CE Credits)
- Winter Conference – January 9, 2027 (6 CE Credits)
- Spring Conference – April 2-4, 2027 (12 CE credits)
In the meantime, enjoy the Spring weather and hopefully we’ll get the chance to connect sooner-than-later!
Craig
Stories in this issue
- Pigs-From Outhouse to Penthouse We rarely cover pigs in our newsletter, but I figured I could continue with the Dr. Bustad theme.
- Health Status of Dairy-Beef Crossed Calves Upon Arrival The expanding dairy-beef sector creates new opportunities for U.S. dairy producers but also highlights persistent gaps in early-life calf management.
- From Uterine Infection to Infertility: Why Metritis Lingers Beyond Recovery Metritis is a common postpartum uterine disease affecting approximately 25% of dairy cows in the United States (Pinedo et al., 2020), and remains a major challenge for herd health and dairy sustainability.
- A good start: early-life risk factors associated with dairy cow longevity I’ve been involved in researching causes of dairy cow mortality for years now and have been lucky enough to get to know Dr. Peter Thomsen who is one of the few other individuals focused on dairy cow mortality.
- Ulcerative typhlitis (cecal inflammation) Neonatal gastrointestinal (GI) disease is obviously a leading cause of high mortality in preweaned dairy calves, but the clinical manifestations associated with GI conditions tend to be less specific than the pathology documented in our study.
- WSU Ag Animal Faculty Research Updates, Spring 2026 Five research updates regarding dairy cows, caribou, and postmortem cardiac morphology.
- WSU College of Veterinary Medicine senior paper highlights, Spring 2026 Six ag animal senior paper highlights covering artificial insemination in beef cattle, obstructive urolithiasis and infectious disease testing in small ruminants, workforce shortages in the veterinary industry, food animal veterinarians unique expertise, and BRD.