PULLMAN, Wash. – Serving as moderators and speakers, faculty from Washington State University’s Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health (SGAH) addressed global food security today in Buffalo, New York.
The occasion was the 2011 annual meeting of the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA) and the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD). The joint plenary session was titled, “Evolving Food Systems for Global Food Security: Can Animal Production and Veterinary Infrastructure Keep Up?”
The session was moderated by Terry McElwain, professor in the of the SGAH. McElwain is also executive director of the Washington State University Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (WADDL) and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
Tom Marsh, professor WSU’s School of Economic Sciences presented “Markets, Infrastructure and Animal Production Systems.” Marsh also serves in the SGAH, directs WSU’s IMPACT Center (International Marketing Program for Agricultural Commodities and Trade), and is a recognized authority on consumer demand and modeling commodity markets.
The conference was co-organized by WSU College of Veterinary Medicine Professor Tim Baszler, director of WADDL and a veterinary pathologist, and North Carolina State Veterinarian David Marshall, incoming president of USAHA.
Baszler serves as president elect of AAVLD. His research interests include the animal forms of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies and development of novel diagnostics for disease surveillance.
“Ensuring optimal human and animal health and food security is one of the world’s greatest challenges because these values are intimately dependent on one another,” said Professor Guy Palmer, Creighton chair and director of the SGAH.
“Diseases that impact animal-based food production span all political boundaries and all sectors of every society and ultimately translate into compromised human health,” he said. “Sadly, poor public health, animal disease, and little or no access to healthy food and clean water have a disproportionate ngative impact on the undeveloped parts of our world.”
Media contact:
Charlie Powell, Public Information Officer, 509-335-7073 (all hours), cpowell@vetmed.wsu.edu
Charlie Powell, Public Information Officer, 509-335-7073 (all hours), cpowell@vetmed.wsu.edu