Recently Held Meetings (updated 22 July 2009)...
American Fisheries Society Fish Health Section & the 50th Annual Western Fish Disease Workshop;7-10 June 2009; Park City, Utah USA: The combined meeting of the Fish Health Section and the 50th Western Fish Disease Workshop by all accounts went very well. Despite the poor economy, approximately 100 people turned out to enjoy the beautiful surroundings, great food and accommodations, camaraderie, and scientific presentations. Dr. Mark Lawrence and associates started the meeting with a continuing education session on bacterial genomics. This was followed by formal presentations on a variety of subjects ranging from VHSV to endocrine disrupting compounds to bacterial coldwater disease. At the banquet, the S.F. Snieszko Distinguished Service Award was made to Dr. Paul Bowser of Cornell University. Agenda and abstracts are currently available on the Fish Health Section's website at: http://www.fisheries.org/units/fhs/FHSschedule.pdf. Many of the presentations will also be available soon on the Fish Health Section's website: http://www.fisheries.org/units/fhs/.
Text provided by Dr. Chris Wilson; State of Utah, Fisheries Experiment Station; 1465 W. 200 N.; Logan, UT 84321; phone 435-752-1066 ext. 201; email chriswilson@utah.gov
15th Annual US Fish & Wildlife Service’s Aquaculture Drug Approval Coordination Workshop was a great success and is now history: This year's Workshop was graciously 
hosted by the US Department of Agriculture - Agriculture Research Service's Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Center, and was held on 9-11 June in Little Rock, Arkansas USA. The Workshop was well attended, with its 74 participants traveling from 21 states, as well as Canada and Germany. In particular, US southeastern states were well represented, which is often not the case when the Workshop is held in its home city of Bozeman, Montana USA.
The three-day Workshop followed a format similar to previous Workshops, primarily focusing on
1) drugs identified by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) Drug Approval Working Group (DAWG) as high priority to state, federal and tribal natural resource agencies and 2) other drugs for which work aimed at fulfilling US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval requirements is ongoing. The session for each drug comprised technical reports pertaining to approval-related studies, as well as status reports on the overall approval process.
Our USDA host, the folks at the Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Center did a fantastic job of making the Workshop not only informative, but enjoyable, especially during the after-session hours. We would like to offer a special thanks to Dave Straus and Cindy Ledbetter for their efforts.
Those not familiar with “southern hospitality” were introduced to it in fine style. Festivities began the night before the Workshop, per se, with a mixer/social at a local brew-pub. During the first evening of the Workshop, attendees were treated to a catfish fry held at the Arkansas Game & Fish 
Commission's Witt Stephens Jr. Nature Center along the Arkansas River in downtown Little Rock. After the last day's session, attendees took a tour of four local aquaculture facilities followed by an amazing crawdad (aka crawfish, crayfish, mud bug or crab, depending on which region of the USA these critters are found) boil. Special thanks goes out to Pool Fisheries, Anderson Minnow Farm, Hopper-Stevens Hatchery and Keo Fish Farms for providing the tours and allowing us the opportunity to see what it really takes to raise fish destined for domestic sales.
The only “complaints” heard during the Workshop pertained to heat of one kind or the other, i.e., “...it sure is hot and humid here…” and “…wow, these crawdads sure are spicy hot…” And in some cases both types of heat caused the perspiration to flow in excess!
Although the information-transfer portion of the Workshop could have been made available in a relatively austere setting, the generous contributions from a host of sponsors made that transfer of information so much more enjoyable and effective. Sponsors for this year's Workshop included (in alphabetical order): Arkansas Agriculture Department - Aquaculture Division, Arkansas Bait and Ornamental Fish Grower's Association, Arkansas Catfish Promotion Board, Aquatic Life Sciences, B. L. Mitchell Inc., Bimeda, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., Frontier Scientific Inc., Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health Corp., and the USDA/ARS Professional Activities Grants Committee. Many thanks goes out to all of them; it wouldn't have been the success it was without their help.
In an effort to share as much of the information offered during the Workshop as possible, the majority of the presentations are now on AADAP's Website and can be viewed by clicking here.
2008 Drug Approval Coordination Workshop: Last year's 14th annual Workshop was again held in Bozeman, Montana. It appears to have been a record breaker; officially 89 registered and were in attendance. Not only was it a record-breaker for total attendance, but FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine also broke a record by sending 13 members of their staff. CVMer's attending covered a broad spectrum of the Center's staff; all the way from a summer student intern (Courtney Coddington) to two Office Directors (Dr. Steve Vaughn, Office of New Animal Drug Evaluation and Dr. Meg Oeller, Office of Minor Use and Minor Species).
Special thanks goes out to all that attended and made the workshop the success it was. Extra special appreciation is expressed to representatives or senior management of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, US Geological Survey, US Fish & Wildlife Service and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies for attending and providing keynotes addresses. See below for more information on the Workshop.
The 2008 Workshop would not have been possible if it were not for the generous assistance of the chemical and pharmaceutical companies attending. Our hats go off to Aquatic Life Sciences, Inc., Axcentive SARL, Bimeda USA, BioOregon/Skretting, Carus Chemical, Eka Chemical, Frontier Scientific Inc., Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health and Novartis Animal Health. We can't say THANK YOU enough!!!
Click here to view the PowerPoint presentations from the 14th Annual Aquaculture Drug Approval Coordination Workhop.
Click on any of the following to view a photo collage of this year's Workshop: bmp file, jpg file, pdf file.
2007 Drug Approval Coordination Workshop: The 13th Annual Workshop returned to Bozeman, Montana this year. Each year they just seem to get better and better, and this year was no exception. Officially 72 registered and were in attendance. Special thanks goes out to all that attended and made the workshop the success it was. Extra special appreciation is expressed to representatives or senior management of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, US Geological Survey, US Fish & Wildlife Service and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies for attending and providing keynotes addresses. See below for more information on the Workshop. The 2007 Workshop would not have been possible if it were not for the generous assistance of the chemical and pharmaceutical companies attending. Our hats go off to Axcentive SARL, Frontier Scientific Inc., Intervet Inc., Novartis Animal Health, Schering-Plough Animal Health and Western Chemical Inc. Thank you, thank you!! Click here to view the PowerPoint presentations from the 13th Annual Aquaculture Drug Approval Coordination Workhop.