President's Message

Jon Townsend, DVM, PhD, DABVP (Dairy Practice), President

Well, it’s finally here. The final month of 2020. It’s been a heck of a year and I am ready to put it in my rear-view mirror and look forward to 2021.

With that said, there have been good things about 2020. Personally, I’ve spent a lot of quality time with my daughters, Emma and Rachel, and my wife, Wendy. We got a chance to do a lot together on the farm that will provide us great memories in the future. I am starting a new job that will provide me new challenges professionally and should allow me to help more dairy farmers and their herds. We have our health. We have much to be thankful for. As for ABVP, we weathered the storm and through great work by our Executive Director, Marisa Hackemann, while we had to cancel the ABVP Symposium for this year, we were able to reschedule it in Chicago in 2022 without suffering a financial hit. We began looking at our diversity and how we can better support and encourage a more diverse membership in both ABVP and veterinary medicine overall. Through the work of Mike Dutton, we were able to deliver exams remotely and did so in an incredibly successful manner. We have achieved some great things during a stressful time.

I’m not a big fan of winter and as I look out of my windows today I am reminded of that. There are three to four inches of freshly fallen snow on the ground here in Indiana. The days are too short. But then I am reminded that we aren’t too far from the shortest day of the year and that things will only get better. There’s a lot to look forward to. We have great hopes that vaccines for Covid-19 will allow us to start getting back to a normal life where we can socialize closely with our friends and family. The vaccine development, from a scientific standpoint, has been incredible to read about. In ABVP, your volunteer leadership is working hard on proposals for an updated credentialing process and a potential name change. These will be huge issues that will require constructive input from all of you after we have debated them at the COR level. We are going forward with our Symposium in New Orleans with the hope that we can provide a great learning environment and do so safely in person, while also providing some “remote” learning as well. With the change to Chicago in 2022 we had to move to a Spring timing for the Symposium. This may turn into a good move for the long-haul but will make lots of work in the short-term. If any of you would like to consider finding ways to get involved in ABVP helping the Symposium/CE Committee would be a great place to make a huge impact! In short there’s a lot on the horizon in 2021 that we are excited about.

In closing, I want to thank you all for allowing me to be at the front of this great organization. It is a great team of volunteers and we could always use more. I am continually impressed by their dedication to high-quality veterinary medicine and ABVP. I hope that all of you can find time during this holiday season to connect in some way with your loved ones and remind them how important they are in your lives. Please think about those less fortunate and find a way to help them as well. Giving and receiving love and compassion is good for the heart. I look forward to talking to all of you again in the New Year!

Stay well and I hope things are good at your end of the barn. 

Jon

Professionalism in ABVP

The ABVP Board of Directors understands and respects the passion that many Diplomates have for their respective specialties and ABVP as a whole. Our organization is continually striving to improve our relevance to our current and future Diplomates and the profession as a whole through the efforts of a group of dedicated volunteers who share that vision. As a result, some of the proposed changes that are put forward emote some understandably strong feeling on all sides of the discussion. However, it is critical to remember that we ultimately must act in a manner in keeping with the ethical standards of our profession which the AVMA and ABVP deem important enough to include in the principles of veterinary medical ethics that “a veterinarian shall uphold the standards of professionalism, be honest in all professional interactions”. More importantly, the shared goals of common decency and mutual respect are critical aspects of all discourse with all interested parties and must be adhered to. Character assassination and personal attacks have no place in this process and will not be tolerated. We understand that people can disagree and encourage engagement in the process without being disagreeable.

ABVP Board of Directors,

Jon Townsend, DVM, PhD, DABVP (Dairy Practice)

Bill Folger, DVM, MS, DABVP (Feline Practice)

Gary Thompson, DVM, DABVP (Canine and Feline Practice)

Suma Rao, DVM, MBA, DABVP (Canine and Feline Practice)

Tracey Jensen, DVM, DABVP (Canine and Feline Practice)

Call for Nominations for BOD and COR

ABVP is a volunteer organization run by Diplomates who continually give their time, effort, and energy. We encourage you to consider serving your organization to help steer it into the future. The Nominating and Maintenance Committee is accepting nominations for the following positions.

To be considered you must be a Diplomate or Emeritus Diplomate in good standing. Your nomination must also accompany a minimum of two (2) letters of support from Diplomates in good standing. All nominations and letters of support should be sent to info@abvp.com on or before Monday, February 1.

Canine and Feline Regent

Dairy Regent

Exotic Companion Mammal Regent

Swine Health Management Regent

Appeals Committee Chair

Treasurer

Vice President

Equine Update

Ashleigh Olds-Sanchez, DVM, DABVP (Equine Practice), Equine Regent

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone in ABVP and introduce myself as the new Equine Regent.  I have some big shoes to fill, and I genuinely appreciate the opportunity and look forward to future service for ABVP. 

This has been a crazy year that I am sure that most of us won’t forget soon. The equine industry was turned upside down by COVID-19, seeing many major competitions, shows, rodeos, and other equine events cancelled. Some show circuits were able to have competitions depending upon region and discipline, but most of those still had significantly reduced schedules. These changes had major impacts on equine veterinarians, especially those with performance horse clientele. We all had to find new and creative ways to carry on our businesses while mitigating COVID-19 risks and dealing with the impacts of competition cancellations. In speaking with most equine practitioners, however, it sounds like most practices and practitioners have been staying busy despite these challenging times. We have also seen extremely robust sales prices for horses, which is a good indicator for the future of the horse market. An added challenge that many parents faced this year was figuring out how to continue to work and practice with no school or childcare for our children due to COVID-19. This will continue to be a struggle in many areas where schools are still not re-opened. I am sure that I was not the only one who had to take children on quite a few farm calls this year or reschedule appointments due to lack of childcare! I am very thankful for understanding clients who were very flexible.

The new MOC (Maintenance of Certification) plan was introduced this year, and the MOC committee has been hard at work. We should be seeing some new “journal club” articles coming soon in the new year. Please be on the lookout for those as these will be required to be read and have questions answered each year as part of the new MOC platform. Additionally, if you know of articles that you think would be a good fit for the Equine Journal Club, please reach out and let us know!

This year was also notable because the ABVP Symposium was cancelled. This was a disappointment for many, but a necessary precaution. Unfortunately, ABVP simply didn’t have the time or resources to pull together a high quality virtual seminar under such a short timeline. The good news is that we are already working on ways to make the next two Symposium meetings even better than ever and we are very much hoping to have in-person meetings. Mark your calendars for September 16-19, 2021 in New Orleans, and April 21-24, 2022 in Chicago on the Miracle Mile. If you have any topics, wet labs or speakers that you would like to see, please let me know!! I look forward to hopefully meeting many of you there. 

MOC: Everyone's Doing It

Renee Rucinsky, DVM, DABVP (Feline Practice), Maintenance of Certification Chair

We’re less than one month away from the MOC deadline. I can see in the portal that so many of you have started the process and hopefully it’s gone smoothly for you. If you are due to MOC by January 15, please start the process soon. You should have received an email from me a month or so ago giving you your MOC vice chair’s name and email address. Please reach out to that person with any questions.

If you are a new Diplomate, congratulations! It’s never too early to look at what the MOC requirements are. There’s a handy chart in the MOC Handbook that tells you exactly what you need going forward.

Lastly, journal club starts in January. Please make sure that you have emails from ABVP marked as safe, and also make sure we have a current primary email address for you.  This is the only way you will be notified that there is an article available for you to complete.

Office Holiday Hours

The ABVP office will be officially closed on December 24, 25, 31 and January 1. Our management company will be taking additional time during the holiday season as well. Please allow additional time for a response. We’ll get back to you just as soon as we can!

Residency and Job Postings

Don’t forget ABVP has classified listings for open positions all over the USA!

Event Calendar 2020-2021

January 15, 2021

• Credentials documentation deadline for both Initial Applications and Re-Applications. All documentation must be submitted via your ABVP online account by 11:59 P.M. Central Time

• Swine Health Management Entry Exam registration and fee deadline. Registration must be completed via your ABVP online account by 11:59 P.M. Central Time

• Semi-Annual Residency Logs deadline. Logs must be submitted via your ABVP SmartSheet account by 11:59 P.M. Central Time

July 1, 2021

• 2021-2022 Diplomate Fees payable via your ABVP online account

July 15, 2021

• Semi-Annual Residency Logs deadline. Logs must be submitted via your ABVP SmartSheet account by 11:59 PM Central Time

July 31, 2021

• Diplomates with unpaid Diplomate fees are removed from the “Find a Diplomate” search feature on the ABVP website pending fees being paid

September 1

• Exam registration and fee deadline. Registration for all Candidates and MOC Diplomates must be completed via your ABVP online account by 11:59 PM Central Time 

• First-time Credentials Application and fee deadline. All applications and fees must be submitted via your ABVP online account by 11:59 PM Central Time

September 16-19, 2021

• ABVP Symposium, New Orleans, LA