The 2022 edition of the Allen D. Leman swine conference held in St. Paul, MN continued to offer a wide range of high-quality, science-driven presentations while innovating on several aspects of its program. This year was another successful edition for the UMN organizing committee, attracting more than 800 attendees from around the globe. Enjoy a few highlights from the conference and mark your calendars for next year: September 16-19, 2023!
Sunday afternoon, the crowd-favorite Beer and Bacon conversation hosted Dr. Tara Donovan from Hanor, interviewed by Dr. Marie Culhane. This session was sold out for the fourth year in a row and we plan to continue the series next year.
This year marked the fifth anniversary of the Morrison Swine Innovator Prize. Hunter Everett, a veterinary student from North Carolina State University was truly honored to be the recipient of this prestigious recognition. Hunter received a $5,000 scholarship for his presentation on the impact of maternally derived antibodies on the vaccine response in pigs. The quality of the students’ presentations was excellent but the topic of Hunter’s project as well as his confidence and enthusiasm placed him on top in the eyes of the jury.
The opening reception sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim mixed science and socializing as attendees interacted with poster presenters while enjoying the buffet at the InterContinental hotel. A new addition to the evening was the reveal of the 2022 recipients of the Growing Research and new technology for swine (GRANTS) program. Dr. Mariana Kikuti from the Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Program was among the awardees.
The 2022 Allen D. Leman conference continued to propose high quality keynote speakers.
Dr. Matthew Turner, PJ Corns, Kyle Coble and Dr. Darin Madson from JBS shared the seven values of the company including humility and sincerity. JBS is the second pork processor in the USA and the first overall protein producer.
The PIC team led by COO Bill Christianson gave the Pijoan lectureship and discussed the progress made in the domain of gene editing and PRRS resistant pigs. Gene-edited pigs are still in the process of getting FDA approval but the PIC team feels like they will be commercially available in the near future.
We celebrated Dr. Carissa Odland for her well-deserved recognition as the Science in Practice awardee of the year. Dr. Odland just received her Master degree from the University of Minnesota under the supervision of Drs. Peter Davies and Noelle Noyes. Dr. Odland went back to school while continuing her practice activity with the Pipestone system. Her research focused on the judicious use of antibiotics at the slat level. The reception was sponsored by Zoetis.
On the second day, Dr. John Deen chaired the keynote addresses. Ryan Moe from Stonex discussed the grain market outlook. He highlighted the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine of fertilizer prices and how large the South American grain production is compared to the USA.
Dr. Jerry Torrison from Longhorn Vaccines gave the Morrison lecture and shared the current gaps in Foreign Animal Disease preparedness. Better training is needed to reduce the time to first detection. Early recognition of a FAD introduction is crucial.
Lastly, we concluded our program with a panel discussion between Drs. Tara Donovan (Hanor), Carissa Odland (Wholestone Farms), and Noel Williams (Iowa Select Farms), moderated by Dr. Kim VandeWaal (UMN).
As always, we would like to thank all of you and our sponsors for the continuing support. The Allen D. Leman swine conference would not exist without you and we hope to see you next year: September 16-19, 2023.