YOUR MONTHLY NEWS & UPDATES
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Laboratory Diagnosticians' News Matters
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Eric Burrough, DVM, PhD Membership Committee Cochairman
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Membership Matters
As we look forward to the second half of 2021, it seems appropriate to reflect on 2020, COVID-19, and the impact the pandemic has had on all aspects of our lives including the day-to-day functions of our diagnostic laboratories. Despite the disruptions to workflow, many veterinary laboratories across the US stepped up to support and provide critical diagnostic testing for human samples while also maintaining their core animal health testing services.
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This is a prime example of the importance and value of the NAHLN as critical infrastructure to scale up and meet the demands of unexpected animal or human health events. Throughout the pandemic, the AAVLD has continued to advocate for mandatory federal funding to support and maintain this network.
As a membership organization, your continued support and annual dues are essential for meeting the AAVLD’s mission of promoting continuous improvement and public awareness of veterinary diagnostic laboratories. The executive board thanks you for being a member and for your involvement in the AAVLD. The 2020 virtual annual meeting was, given the circumstances, successful beyond expectations and this is in no small part due to the support of our members in these challenging times. If you have not yet renewed for 2021, or you membership has lapsed, please consider renewing today. Please also consider inviting your colleagues to join if they are not already members and encourage them to contribute an abstract to the annual meeting or to attend the meeting and sit in on a committee session to learn more about the organization. Mentorship is a fundamental component of professional growth and one way to help mentor young diagnosticians is to expose them to the various professional organizations available to them. Hopefully once they see the AAVLD in action they will want to join and contribute to the advancement of veterinary diagnostic medicine.
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The AAVLD Foundation sponsored student awards for best student presentation and poster began in the early 1990’s. Sixteen awards were given out in that decade. Over the next several issues of the AAVLD NEWS we will highlight where some of these awardees are today. They represent an array of career paths and disciplines.
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William (Bill) T. Christianson, DVM, PhD, was the 1992 presentation awardee (University of Minnesota) for his paper on the pathogenesis of reproductive failure caused by SIRS (aka PRRS). Dr. Christianson is currently the chief operating officer of PIC Genus pork (PIC- Pig Improvement Company) after serving in various positions at PIC since 1993.
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Douglas Gregg, DVM, PhD, was the first AAVLD poster awardee in 1993 for his work on the immunohistochemistry and ultrastructure of early infection of interdigitating dendritic cells in the pig lymph node with African swine fever virus. Dr. Gregg retired after 28 years as a veterinary pathologist at FADDL on Plum Island and as a piano expert he currently runs his own classical piano restoration, repair, tuning, sales and rental service on Long Island, NY.
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Interested in helping maintain and shape the public face of the AAVLD?
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The Communications Committee is forming a new subcommittee that will be tasked with reviewing requests related to the organization’s website, periodic review of the website, and overall maintenance of this space.
The Communications Committee is seeking volunteers to serve as members of a Website Subcommittee that will perform these functions. The website has recently undergone several changes and our committee would like to ensure that the website remains a functional tool for members, as well as an informative and attractive space for those seeking information about the AAVLD.
No need to be tech-savvy—just someone interested in the website and its functionality and presentation. The subcommittee will meet virtually 2-4 times annually.
If you would like to serve on this subcommittee, please send a note to Grant Burcham gburcham@purdue.edu or Pam Ferro pferro@tvmdl.tamu.edu, current co-chairs of the Communications Committee. Thanks for your interest!
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Innovators at Purdue’s Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL) have used their expertise to make the on-campus testing facility one of the only labs in Indiana actively looking for and able to detect the UK variant of the COVID-19 virus. This ability, combined with the university’s data-driven testing approach, has enabled cases to be caught, thereby stopping any potential spread among the campus community.
The university’s current PCR test, run at the ADDL, detects three viral gene targets – two of which must be positive to call the sample positive for SARS-CoV-2. Identification of the UK (B.1.1.7) variant strain begins at the point of ADDL’s analysis of the sample, where one of the three targets, the “S gene,” is absent while the other two gene targets are observed. This “S drop” pattern is a hallmark pattern in the B.1.1.7 variants, but not all S drops are actually the variant – whole-genome sequencing is required to confirm B.1.1.7. When S drop is noted, the sample is sent to the Carpi Laboratory on campus for SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing using the latest Nanopore sequencing technology. Sequencing results are typically available in two days and reveal any mutations or changes in the virus’s RNA, which can indicate a COVID-19 variant. All S drop samples detected at Purdue are also sent to the Indiana State Department of Health, which then forwards the samples to the CDC.
More than 55,000 tests have been conducted since Jan. 1. Of just over 1,000 positive tests in the spring semester, five cases of the UK COVID-19 variant have been confirmed in the Purdue campus community. The cases were detected as part of the university’s robust testing and contact tracing protocol and collaboration with the Tippecanoe County Health Department and the Indiana Department of Health.
Four cases of the UK variant were detected in students during pre-arrival testing for spring semester — two were roommates, the other two unrelated. Each was arriving to campus from an international location. As previously announced, all students were required to have a negative test before the beginning of classes, and all students traveling internationally were and are required to quarantine before accessing campus. The four pre-arrival positives for the UK variant were discovered during that quarantine period. Contact tracing found there was no spread due to the quarantine plan. The fifth case was recently identified in an individual who works in health care off campus. They have undergone isolation and contact tracing as well.
Protect Purdue Chief Medical Officer Dr. Esteban Ramirez has discussed the presence of the variant and quarantine efforts during live-streamed Purdue Provost’s Conversations and during public Tippecanoe County Health Department briefings.
“Our unique internal testing ability made us fortunate and able to catch the initial cases before returning to campus,” Ramirez said. “PPHC has not yet seen any difference in the severity in the small number of variant cases we have detected.”
Campus leaders, in consultation with the Protect Purdue Medical Advisory Team and Tippecanoe County health leaders, are examining closely the latest available evidence on the COVID-19 virus and newly reported strains, which also have been detected elsewhere in Indiana. Per the CDC, these new strains, which appear to spread more easily among individuals, do not appear to lead to more severe illness or increased risk of death at this time.
Importantly, all current strategies for mitigating the spread of the virus remain the most effective tools in protecting ourselves, others and Purdue’s community: the de-densification of classrooms and workspaces, physical distancing, avoiding large gatherings, the correct and consistent use of face masks, robust personal hygiene, staying home when sick, promptly isolating the infected and quarantining those in close contact for further evaluation, avoiding unnecessary travel, and proactively pursuing testing when activities or interactions suggest risk of exposure. Diligent adherence to the Protect Purdue Pledge — even in one’s shared residence and when off-campus or off-the-clock — is critically important, now more than ever.
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Partnership between veterinary diagnostic laboratory and human healthcare providers recognized for response to COVID-19
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An unconventional partnership between the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL), St. Joseph Health and the Amarillo Pathology Group Physician’s Preferred Laboratory (APG-PPL) was recently recognized for its contribution to COVID-19 testing in Texas.
Established in 1980, the Texas A&M AgriLife Vice Chancellor’s Awards in Excellence recognize the contributions and commitments of individuals across all of Texas A&M AgriLife’s agencies.
At this year’s presentation the COVID-19 testing partnership between TVMDL, St. Joseph Health, and APG-PPL was honored with the Partnership Award.
The Partnership Award is designed to recognize individuals or teams within AgriLife that establish and implement collaborative efforts with industry, agency, university, or associations that advance AgriLife’s mission to serve Texans and the world.
Last March, public health laboratories began to struggle with the onslaught of testing for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Most human health laboratories are not equipped to perform high throughput testing and therefore lacked the capacity to keep up with the demand brought on by the pandemic. In contrast, TVMDL routinely tests herds and flocks of animals for a variety of diseases and has the equipment and expertise to perform thousands of tests each day.
Recognizing this, officials at TVMDL and St. Joseph Health came together to create a unique partnership. The agreement allowed St. Joseph Health staff to use TVMDL’s high throughput equipment and laboratory space to perform polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing.
To make this partnership come to fruition, both entities had to overcome state and federal hurdles to receive authorization to perform testing on human samples at a lab traditionally used for veterinary diagnostics.
Administrators from TVMDL and St. Joseph Health worked diligently to create a proposal that met the rigorous requirements of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), the entity that regulates all human laboratory testing in the United States. Once approved, TVMDL staff trained St. Joseph Health staff on the agency’s high throughput equipment while St. Joseph Health simultaneously ensured TVMDL’s quality assurance and biosafety procedures complied with CLIA requirements.
Testing officially began at TVMDL’s College Station laboratory in late April 2020.
“The St. Joseph Health and TVMDL teams quickly collaborated as scientists to develop a seven-day-a-week operation that completed over 20,000 tests for SARS-CoV-2 by the end of September,” President and CEO of St. Joseph Health Theron Park said. “What’s most impressive is that this program provided a reliable result that was within the hands of the clinician with 24 hours.”
Knowing the critical need for testing in the Texas Panhandle, TVMDL hoped to find a similar partner who could utilize the agency’s Amarillo laboratory. APG-PPL was eager to increase their testing capacity for the region and the TVMDL/AGP-PPL partnership was quickly formed.
“We, like others all over the country and globe, were struggling with test capacity forcing providers to send samples to state and national labs that were already overloaded,” PPL Partner Robert Todd, MD, said. “This partnership created the opportunity for the communities of the Texas Panhandle to have much needed access to timely, accurate testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.”
Within one month of beginning testing in College Station, testing began at TVMDL’s Amarillo laboratory with APG-PPL staff using the agency’s equipment and laboratory space. Both entities credit State Representative Four Price for his assistance in clearing the required hurdles to allow the partnership to quickly make a significant impact in the area.
“The TVMDL and APG-PPL partnership has been vital to the Amarillo and Texas Panhandle region,” Representative Price said. “The operation of this lab has allowed increased testing during critical points for the region and allowed local governments and businesses to make informed decisions. This unconventional and innovative partnership of human healthcare and veterinary medicine is a testament to both organizations’ ingenuity as well as their commitment to service and community.”
Through these partnerships, St. Joseph Health and APG-PPL performed over 51,000 tests using TVMDL equipment and laboratory space in 2020.
“Our staff prepares for events like these every day, but it’s so rare that those plans are put into action.” TVMDL Director Bruce Akey, MS, DVM, said. “It’s even more rare that we play such a substantial role in protecting human health. It’s a role we’ve spent 50+ years preparing for yet never expected, but one we were able to fulfill alongside our human healthcare partners at St. Joseph Health and APG-PPL.”
The team honored with this award consists of TVMDL professionals Dr. Amy Swinford, Dr. Kiril Dimitrov, Dr. Pam Ferro, Dr. Megan Schroeder, and Dr. Owais Khan. APG-PPL team members are Dr. Andrew Hoot, Ms. Heidi Dorman, and Ms. Charlyn Snow. St. Joseph Health members are Ms. Kimberly Dubose and Dr. Marcela Jimenez.
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Phase II as of 12-09-2020: A new wing of the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health at Washington State University will house the WADDL program, a lab performing animal disease detection and proof of negative testing services.
WSU PHOTOGRAPHER HENRY MOORE JR.
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Washington State University is home to the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (WADDL), a state, regional, and national reference laboratory that performs animal disease detection in all species, and advocates for regional and international trade through “proof of negative” testing for animal industries. As the only internationally accredited veterinary diagnostic laboratory in Washington State, WADDL protects against emerging and foreign diseases and food borne illnesses, and provides first alerts for disease outbreaks. The research and testing done at WADDL involves many types of animals, including livestock, poultry, and fish, as well as pets.
The WADDL program, created in 1974, is of vital importance to the mission of the Allen School for Global Animal Health, originally The School for Global Animal Health, which was established in 2008 following the largest private grant in WSU history, courtesy of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation donated $26 million in 2010 to establish the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, with a focus on the health of animals as a means of improving the health of humans and the environment. Some of the work undertaken by the school includes the development of a model for zoonotic disease surveillance and detection in Sub-Saharan Africa, to examine disease spread between animals and people to develop current and future preventive programs. WADDL has also performed extensive research and testing related to classical swine fever, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), and avian flu, among other diseases.
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The Aquatic Health Laboratory in the GAH2 building at Washington State University provides health screening and diagnostic testing for marine and freshwater fish, including ornamental species.
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WADDL has been housed in WSU’s Bustad Hall in Pullman, WA since 1978 (the program also contains the Avian Health Laboratory, on the campus of the Western Washington Regional Extension Center in Puyallup, WA). The following year, it became the first laboratory in the western US to achieve accredited full-service laboratory status under the auspices of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, and it’s been re-accredited continuously since. The lab provides bacteriology, parasitology, pathology, serology, toxicology (through the Analytical Sciences Laboratory, University of Idaho), and virology services. Its services cover all of
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Washington State, much of Idaho and the Pacific Northwest, plus Alaska and Hawaii. Not only does WADDL serve the private sector, it also provides support for the WSU veterinary teaching hospital, university herds and flocks, WSU laboratory animal programs, and the Field Disease Investigation Unit (FDIU).
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High demand leads to lab expansion
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WADDL has been housed in WSU’s Bustad Hall in Pullman, WA since 1978 (the program also contains the Avian Health Laboratory, on the campus of the Western Washington Regional Extension Center in Puyallup, WA). The following year, it became the first laboratory in the western US to achieve accredited full-service laboratory status under the auspices of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, and it’s been re-accredited continuously since. The lab provides bacteriology, parasitology, pathology, serology, toxicology (through the Analytical Sciences Laboratory, University of Idaho), and virology services. Its services cover all of Washington State, much of Idaho and the Pacific Northwest, plus Alaska and Hawaii. Not only does WADDL serve the private sector, it also provides support for the WSU veterinary teaching hospital, university herds and flocks, WSU laboratory animal programs, and the Field Disease Investigation Unit (FDIU).
“There's four basic things that we do,” says Timothy Baszler, executive director at WADDL and associate director of disease surveillance at the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health. “We diagnose animal diseases—all kinds of them—from companion animals to agricultural animals to wildlife, to snakes and salamanders, to cattle, dogs, and everything. Then we diagnose zoonotic disease, so we deal with public health—those diseases that animals and people share.” He continues, “We do a fair bit of promoting of economies, so we promote trade. Our clients make products that they pass all over the world. So, for example, in Washington, the salmon fish industry is quite big and they sell eggs all over the world, and they can't move those eggs unless they're free of very particular diseases. So, we do a lot of what we call proof of negative testing. You've got to prove you don't have something before another country will accept it. I think every diagnostic lab in the country does that. The last one is just food safety testing. For example, we have a chicken industry in Washington where they mostly sell eggs. To sell those eggs, you have to test and they have to be free of salmonella and certain diseases that you can catch from food. So, it's not only the animals you test, but the products that come from the animals that are sold somewhere. That's kind of the basic function of the lab.”
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WADDL’s testing demand has increased more than 250 percent since the 1970s, with about three million tests conducted in the last 10 years. The university in 2018 approved plans for the Global Animal Health Phase II Building (GAH2), a new wing on the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, to accommodate the WADDL program and its modern biosecurity and workflow needs. The site will contain diagnostic laboratories, research and development laboratories, and an instructional laboratory utilized by veterinary students, post-DVM and other health professionals, and both graduate and undergrad students.
Moving between the original and new areas of the building presents unique challenges, says Baszler, noting that a concern was how to mesh not only the architecture of the existing building and the new wing, but how to properly integrate their functions as well.
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A view of the doors to cold room storage from the necropsy suite.
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He credits the design team with helping him and his staff see that reality. Susan Clark, a lab planner with Perkins+Will, was a member of that team. “It became a really interesting problem to solve. We had everything from giant horses down to dogs and smaller animals—potentially the specimens would be coming in in all different ways,” she says. “So, it was kind of, in some ways, just like a human facility, except exclusively for diagnostics for animals.”
Energy and light also posed a challenge to the design team. Labs are well-known “energy hogs,” and biosafety labs use an especially large amount of energy. “We had initiatives like reducing the amount of lighting that was needed in the building. We had a lot of daylight. The labs are day lit through having very, very open, glassy areas—you can use borrowed light into the labs. We had active chilled beams to help with energy, radiant heating, and some zone heating and recovery,” says Clark.
Alex Clinton, also a lab planner with Perkins+Will, comments that the necropsy suite, which is a high bay space, is a major energy hog. “You’ve got a huge room volume there. You've got odors to deal with that you need to make sure you take account of. So that's one of the things we certainly looked at—trying to really intelligently design and lay out the HVAC so that we had a good laminar flow,” he says.
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A view of the necropsy, high windows, and overhead crane system in the GAH2 facility, a unique feature to this building.
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Baszler is an auditor for labs around the country, and says that the natural lighting in the new WADDL facility is something that really stands out among all the other labs he’s seen. The bridge crane that WADDL will utilize is also a unique aspect that will be a great help to those who work in the lab. Video screens mounted throughout the facility announce the sample flow to the labs, so people know when they need to pick up their samples from testing or perform other tasks. Clark adds that the original facility had a lot of gowning and un-gowning that had to happen as people moved in and out of the BSL-2 areas, and her team “worked really hard to make it so that didn't have to happen” in the new lab, she says, by implementing separate stairwells and elevators for different zones. “Between where the specimens come in, everything is in the BSL-2 zone.
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And when you come out into the office, then you're in a quasi zone. But then everything flows from that sample processing. We spent a lot of time talking through that and how all the samples get up to the labs, so that was as seamless as possible and there wasn't this transfer from one zone to another.”
The vision of the two buildings, says Baszler, was to foster collaboration between different researchers doing different jobs. “It’s not often that diagnosticians doing everyday surveillance and researchers doing bench research and discovery mix. Now we have two buildings adjacent to each other where we want them to mix. So, these lunch and break areas and courtyards that are accessible to both…our hope is that it fosters some very unique, personal interactions,” says Baszler. “Kind of a different way to think about getting rid of the silos in research and diagnostics and getting them together, because they can get siloed.”
That sense of cooperation carried over to the project team planning out the site expansion, adds Clinton. “Overall, the whole team just worked really well together,” he says. “You can’t put a price on it—it just makes such a difference in the whole process.”
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Accreditation Committee Highlights
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Submitted by Amy Swinford and Dave Korcal, Co-Chairs of the Accreditation Committee
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New AAVLD Standard Published January 1, 2021
The Requirements For An Accredited Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory AC1, Version 2021-01 was published on the AAVLD website on January 1, 2021. All AAVLD-accredited laboratories will be audited to the new standard starting this year.
Benefits of the AAVLD Accreditation Program
A one-page document explaining benefits of AAVLD Accreditation as well as costs associated with the lack of a functional quality system was created by members of the Accreditation Committee at the request of the AAVLD Executive Board. This document was approved by the Executive Board in January, and is now available on the AAVLD website, and will be featured in the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation. Laboratory directors and administrators may find it useful to reference this document when describing the importance of maintaining AAVLD accreditation in their laboratories.
Training
On February 8, 2021 the Accreditation Committee received training via Zoom on performing virtual audits from Ms. Dawn Mettler of Rockbridge Laboratory Services. Dawn’s experience with performing virtual audits during 2020 provided useful information as the Committee prepares for the upcoming 2021 site visits (see below). On February 10, 2021 the Committee conducted training of the AAVLD Audit Pool members and other interested AAVLD members by Zoom. There were 84 registered participants. Topics covered were the new AAVLD Requirements, Auditing Techniques, Site Visit Procedures, and Writing Non-Conformances. As the February Audit Pool training is ordinarily an in-person event with interactive workshop exercises accompanying each topic, the Committee successfully replicated the experience by using Zoom break-out rooms to facilitate the small-group interactions. After each break-out room exercise, the entire group came back together for a discussion of the workshop. The small groups became quite competitive in their quests to determine the correct answers and the “chat” feature of Zoom was used to voice “team spirit.” Who says auditing can’t be fun? A special thanks goes to Dave Korcal, Monica King, and Courtney Chapin and Michigan State University for facilitating the Zoom experience, and to Accreditation Committee members Pat Lukens, Dave Korcal, and Joey Kellum for serving as presenters and trainers.
2021 Site Visits
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no full site visits conducted in 2020, and all AAVLD-accredited laboratories were given a one-year extension on their accreditation. After conducting two interim site visits virtually last year, the Committee has plans to move forward with the 2021 scheduled full site visits. The current plan is to use a hybrid model of having at least one Accreditation Committee member physically present at the audited laboratory, with the rest of the site visit team participating virtually. As COVID-19 vaccinations ramp up and if pandemic conditions improve across the nation, the Committee will revisit the feasibility of traveling with full site visit teams to each lab. If your accreditation expires on December 31, 2021, you will be contacted by your site visit chair to schedule your site visit.
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JVDI in Focus
The goal of JVDI in Focus is to bring attention to an interesting article appearing in the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation. This month’s focus is the Review article in our March issue: “Histologic features of hair follicle neoplasms and cysts in dogs and cats: a diagnostic guide,” by Dominique J. Wiener.
J Vet Diagn Invest 2020;33(3).
Abstract. Hair follicle neoplasms occur in many different species, including humans. In domestic animals, they are most common in dogs. Most hair follicle tumors are benign, but malignant neoplasms can also occur. To diagnose hair follicle neoplasms, a thorough knowledge of follicular anatomy is important, given that follicular tumors are classified according to the differentiation pattern seen in the corresponding part of the normal hair follicle. This review focuses on the key diagnostic features of hair follicle tumors and follicular cysts in dogs and cats.
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Figure 2. Summary of histologic hallmarks in canine telogen and anagen hair follicles. Note the opening of the sebaceous gland duct at the junction of the infundibulum and isthmus of both the telogen and anagen hair follicle. H&E. 10× (telogen) and 4× (anagen), respectively. IRS = inner root sheath; ORS = outer root sheath.
JVDI News
Tired of JVDI emails going directly to your Spam/Junk folder? Ask your IT person to greenlight the 2 domains listed below:
amazonses.com; manuscriptcentral.com
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AAVLD New Member Benefit Coming Soon!
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AAVLD is bringing you a new membership benefit that is sure to peek your interest. The MC l LMS is a Learning Management System. The MC l LMS will keep certification and training materials in one place. Members can view training videos, scientific presentations and much more. AAVLD will determine the packages, availability, and pricing soon.
Some of the MC l LMS features:
- Single-Sign-On (SSO) with Oasis
- Content Upload and Management
- Customized Certificates
- Continuing Education Tracking
- Group-based Permissioning
- Progress and Usage Reporting
We have captured most of the 2020 AAVLD Annual Meeting and will launch the program by featuring recorded scientific sessions and other speakers soon. Information will be sent to you via AAVLD communication emails, so look out for the latest updates.
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AAVLD Membership Drive Competition – Earn a Free Lunch for yourself or your Lab!!
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Dear AAVLD Members:
We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe during this unprecedented crisis. We want to reach out to you on behalf of AAVLD as co-chairs of the membership committee. The strength of AAVLD as a corporate body largely depends on the commitment of its members and we want to heartily thank you for support of the organization over the years.
Our vibrancy as an organization depends on a strong involved membership base. In this regard, we remind you of the ongoing membership drive competition which due to COVID issues, we have now extended the competition to September 30, 2021.
Competition Timeframe: January 2020 through September 30, 2021.
How to submit: The competition is open to individual members and to Laboratories. The goal is to grow our organization’s membership through the recruitment of new members and bringing back previous members whose membership has lapsed by two or more years. Each time you successfully sponsor a new member who subscribes, send your name (personal or institution) and the name of the new member to rozuna@aavld.org and burrough@iastate.edu.
Prizes: Winners will be selected based solely on the number of new or renewing (after ≥ 2-year lapse) members recruited. The winners will be recognized at the AAVLD annual meeting during the Foundation Auction. There will be two prizes – one individual and one Lab:
· Individual prize: $100 Visa debit card: treat yourself for being an outstanding supporter!
· Laboratory prize: $500 Visa debit card: use these funds to celebrate with your lab mates!
We wish you continuous safety during the months ahead and look forward to meeting you online at the October annual meeting.
Debra Royal & Eric Burrough
Co-Chairs, Membership Committee
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2021 Hybrid AAVLD / USAHA Conference
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Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.
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Take advantage of the terrific AAVLD resources offered to our members
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Veterinary Jobs - American Association of Veterinary...
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2022 Renewals are due by November 15!
'Membership is January to December'
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AAVLD membership is open to any individual interested in the disciplines and activities of veterinary diagnostic laboratories. Membership terms are by calendar year (January-December) and membership dues are payable by November 15th of the preceding year (to ensure inclusion in the annual membership directory, eligibility for committee involvement, and receipt of all six issues of the JVDI). Note: In order to receive a discounted rate for the Annual Meeting registration, you are required to be a current AAVLD Member.
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Did your membership Lapse?
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Please select 'Renew Now' to access the Lapsed Membership renewal form. www.aavld.org ->Quick Links->Renew Now->here you can access the Lapsed Membership Form.
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Frequently Asked Questions Regarding AAVLD Membership:
When are my dues fee due?
They are due November 15 for the next calendar year. Many members pay for the next year when they register for the annual meeting. Lead time is needed to finalize committee appointments for the new year.
Does it matter who pays for my dues?
No. Your status will be the same with their respective privileges whether you pay, your employer pays, or your Uncle Vinny.
Are Lab Accreditation dues different than Institutional/Agency membership dues?
Yes
· Laboratory Accreditation dues are different and separate and are related to accreditation only and go to fund the accreditation program only.
· Whether accredited or not, a Laboratory (or Institution/Agency) may additionally become an Institutional/Agency Member. By doing so they are supporting the broad mission of the AAVLD and these funds go to support CE and training and all other activities of the AAVLD. Institutional/Agency Members are highly valued members and are demonstrating leadership and belief in our organizational purpose.
Do Institutional/Agency Member labs have to pay for their employees individual dues?
No. A laboratory, institution, agency or department can become a member under this category even without signing up their employees. They are simply supporting the AAVLD mission with their dues payment. Some states are not allowed to pay for employee dues; and some states have budgetary restrictions.
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2021 Committee Appointments
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If you wish to serve on a particular committee in 2021, contact the committee chairs now and express your interest. Thank you!
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AAVLD & News Worthy Events
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- Executive Board Hybrid Meeting, August 4, 2021-VIRTUAL
- Accreditation Committee, Meeting August 2-3, 2021-VIRTUAL
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AAVLD/USAHA Hybrid Annual Conference, Gaylord of the Rockies, Denver, Colorado, October 21-October 27, 2021 (Due to the uncertainty with Covid-19, their may be updates to the details of the meeting.)
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Do you have ideas to improve the AAVLD annual meeting? Contact David Zeman dzeman@aavld.org
Would you like to sponsor an event? Contact
What ever your contribution to the AAVLD mission, we need you!
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Thank You to our Exhibitors and Sponsors of the 2021 Annual Conference!
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The generous contributions and participation by our Exhibitors and Sponsors is a huge part of our conference success year after year. On behalf of the AAVLD, we would like to thank these companies for their commitment to our organization and helping us to achieve our mission.
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Thank you
2021 Meeting Sponsors
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AAVLD Foundation Committee
Brett Webb- Cochair
Francois Elvinger- Cochair
John M. Adaska
Donal O'Toole
Tim Baszler
David Zeman
Bruce Akey
Jerry Saliki
Christie Mayo
Kristy Pabilonia
Beate Crossley
François Elvinger
Pat Halbur
Brett Webb
Jamie Henningson
Kerry Sondgeroth
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The AAVLD Foundation is a non-profit foundation that raises funds for the advancement of veterinary diagnostic laboratory disciplines through scholarship programs, student travel support to our scientific meeting, guest lectures, seminars, professional awards and research programs. Contributions to the Foundation are tax-deductible 501(c)(3), and can be paid when you renew your AAVLD membership. Thank you for remembering your AAVLD Foundation!
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