AABP Meeting Sessions

To expand each session and view the presentation descriptions, click the arrow next to each session.

Beef

Title	Date
Paige Schmidt	Friday, August 28, 2026 1:45:00 PM
Another one bites the dust - late day feedlot mortalities Miles Theurer Feedyard health issues continue to become more challenging especially as days on feed and out weights are increased. This session will provide insight on late-day death loss in feedyard cattle.	Friday, August 28, 2026 2:30:00 PM
Eric Behlke	Friday, August 28, 2026 3:15:00 PM
Beef Cows Get That Too! Johne's, BLV, and More. Meredyth Jones Cook This session will review diseases commonly considered "dairy" diseases but are also commonly seen in beef cattle. We will review these diseases - Johne's, BLV, hairy heel wart and others and how to manage these in the beef cow/calf sector.	Friday, August 28, 2026 4:15:00 PM
Theileria and Anaplasmosis: A practitioner's perspective of initial exposure in a naive population and current management. Dan Goehl To present from a practitioner point of view the significance of Theileria and Anaplasmosis in general practice. This session covers clinical assessment and development of an effective treatment plan including efforts to differentiate the two infections. Will also look at some of the obstacles of initial exposure to a naïve population.	Friday, August 28, 2026 5:15:00 PM
A Practitioner's Perspective of Theileria and Anaplasmosis in Practice Dan Goehl This session covers clinical assessment and development of an effective treatment plan for Theileria and Anaplasmosis. The session will look at differentiating the two diseases and dealing with the exposure of naive animals.	Friday, August 28, 2026 5:15:00 PM
Jessica Sperber	Saturday, August 29, 2026 8:00:00 AM
How now, pregnant cow? Tips for preparing replacement heifers for life in the herd Elizabeth Homerosky This session focuses on methods to reduce your producers’ #1 non-cash cost (cow depreciation!) and increase the overall profitability of their operations. We will review practical, evidence-based strategies to help your clients achieve 85% conception rate in 30 days, improve momentum, and promote longevity in their cow herds. We will also discuss strategic implant strategies in heifer calves.	Saturday, August 29, 2026 8:45:00 AM
Antimicrobial monitoring: Practical tips for beef cattle veterinarians John Groves Is our current beef production model too reliant on high rates of antimicrobial use? While initial decisions to use these drugs are often driven by immediate disease management and animal welfare, a deeper look reveals they are shaped by complex adaptive systems involving many stakeholders. To truly understand and manage the fundamental drivers of antimicrobial use, we need to equip field veterinarians with accessible and practical monitoring and feedback metrics. This vital next step toward designing usage policies that align with prudent use and stewardship goals will be focus of my presentation.	Saturday, August 29, 2026 9:30:00 AM
David Lalman	Saturday, August 29, 2026 10:30:00 AM
Amelia R. Woolums	Saturday, August 29, 2026 2:00:00 PM
Bovine heart disease: practical insights from feedyard data Brad White Congestive heart failure (CHF) and related cardiac diseases are increasingly recognized contributors to feedyard mortality; however, overlapping clinical syndromes make accurate diagnosis challenging. This presentation synthesizes findings from large retrospective feedyard datasets, detailed postmortem examinations, harvest-based heart scoring, and cardiac and hepatic histopathology to improve understanding of heart disease in feedyard cattle. Practical implications for veterinarians include refining case definitions, identifying relevant risk factors, recognizing concurrent cardiopulmonary pathology, and applying postmortem data to inform management decisions, client communication, and future risk mitigation strategies.	Saturday, August 29, 2026 3:00:00 PM
Beef on Dairy - health protocols, facilities, calf range stage of production Miles Theurer Beef-dairy crosses are increasingly utilized in the beef supply chain. These crosses aim to combine the superior growth, feed efficiency, and carcass quality traits of beef breeds with the robustness and availability of the dairy cow population. This session will provide overview of beef-dairy crosses from calf ranch and managing through the feedyard.	Saturday, August 29, 2026 3:45:00 PM
Amelia R. Woolums	Saturday, August 29, 2026 4:45:00 PM

Clinical Skills

Title	Date
Caitlin Wiley	Thursday, August 27, 2026 1:30:00 PM
Lung Ultrasound in Feedlot Cattle Luis Feitoza Lung ultrasound is a practical and easy-to-use, chute-side tool in feedlot cattle, thanks to portable machines and quick scan times that fit well into routine handling. It allows us to see lung disease directly, rather than relying only on clinical signs, which can improve treatment and management decisions. The main challenges are that it requires training, but when used appropriately, lung ultrasound is a useful, real-world addition to feedlot respiratory health programs.	Thursday, August 27, 2026 2:15:00 PM
The Eyes Have It: Surgery of the Eye Meredyth Jones Cook This session will use photos and videos demonstrating anesthetic and surgical procedures for eyes. Clinical skills and their indications will be presented: Third Eyelid Resection, Third Eyelid Flap, H-Plasty, and Exenteration. Other considerations for diseases like ocular squamous cell carcinoma and pinkeye are also discussed.	Thursday, August 27, 2026 3:00:00 PM
Field Surgery topics in calves and Field Surgery Topics in Cows Matt Miesner I will use some case examples of problems presented and follow with management based on personal and consultation experiences backed with scientific literature where available.	Thursday, August 27, 2026 4:00:00 PM
Field Cow Surgery Matt Miesner I will present a couple of case examples and work through them discussing preparation, restraint and the procedure itself.	Thursday, August 27, 2026 4:45:00 PM
Medical Ultrasound - Ultrasounds Are Not Just for the Rectum! Meredyth Jones Cook This seminar will teach veterinarians practical medical ultrasound techniques for ruminants through guided walkthroughs with real ultrasound images and video demonstrations. They will learn to confidently identify and interpret ultrasound findings across multiple organ systems, including the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, reticulum (including hardware disease diagnosis), and pelvic organs.	Friday, August 28, 2026 8:00:00 AM
Renee Dewell	Friday, August 28, 2026 8:45:00 AM
Blow Holes and Blow Outs! Strategies for performing a rumenostomy and rectal prolapse amputation Elizabeth Homerosky This session will review indications for performing a rumenostomy and rectal prolapse amputation along with practical tips to improve your surgical technique and ensure a successful outcome for both surgeon and patient in a field setting. Ancillary therapy and expected outcomes for each procedure will also be discussed.	Friday, August 28, 2026 9:30:00 AM

Dairy

Title	Date
Management of Recycled Bedding Systems to Enhance Udder Health Sandra Godden The selection and management of specific bedding materials can have important impacts on cow comfort, udder health, milk quality and milk production. In this session, we will discuss the pros, cons, goals, and management options, including newer technologies, for recycled sand and recycled manure solids bedding systems.	Friday, August 28, 2026 1:45:00 PM
Contagious Mastitis: Manage It Before It Manages You Justine Britten This talk will touch on all 4 of the major contagious mastitis pathogens: Mycoplasma, Staph aureus, Strep ag and Prototheca. The content will focus primarily on data and examples from real world experience but will also touch on how this information does or does not align with what is known from reference literature. This talk is intended to be practical and applicable in nature to practicing veterinarians.	Friday, August 28, 2026 2:30:00 PM
Turning Data Into Decisions: Advancing Mastitis Lab Excellence Justine Britten This session will focus on the different diagnostic scopes and service levels that can be offered by a mastitis laboratory. Included in the material will be advantages and disadvantages of these different scopes, such changes in Sensitivity and Specificity of detection, cost, labor and applicability of the information. This talk is intended to give veterinarians realistic ideas and guidelines for what they can achieve and manage in their own practices. The material will include specific techniques that can impact detection (negatively or positively) and key tips for best practices.	Friday, August 28, 2026 3:15:00 PM
Will McKinley	Friday, August 28, 2026 4:15:00 PM
Laura Solano	Friday, August 28, 2026 5:15:00 PM
Getting them off on the right hoof: Colostrum management for dairy calves Sandra Godden Colostrum management is arguably a cornerstone for any successful calf rearing program. In this session, after a quick review of the basics (the 3 Qs), we'll discuss recent advances to further up your clients' colostrum game. This will include a discussion of monitoring goals, factors associated with colostrum yields from cows, the importance of feeding clean colostrum, and benefits of extended feeding, including both preventive and possible therapeutic applications for post day-1 supplementation of the milk diet with transition milk or colostrum supplements.	Saturday, August 29, 2026 8:00:00 AM
Getting Off the Right Hoof: Building Strong Immunity With Colostrum—Not Antibiotics Lautaro Rostoll-Cangiano 1. Explain how colostrum influences early immune programming in dairy calves beyond passive IgG transfer. 2. Describe how early-life antibiotic exposure—such as neomycin—disrupts gut microbiome development and immune maturation. 3. Evaluate the long-term health and productivity consequences of early feeding decisions, including colostrum quality, timing, and the unnecessary use of antibiotics. 4. Apply evidence-based messaging to communicate with producers about the risks of early antibiotic use and the benefits of optimized colostrum management. 5. Integrate research-based recommendations into practical on-farm protocols to improve calf immunity, reduce disease susceptibility, and support antimicrobial stewardship.	Saturday, August 29, 2026 8:45:00 AM
Managing inflammation in early lactation Jessica McArt Postpartum inflammation is a normal aspect of early lactation physiology, but when excessive, it can become a key instigator of disease and impaired performance. This session will explore the timing and magnitude of inflammatory activation in fresh cows, including evidence that elevations in acute-phase proteins are linked to reduced dry matter intake, depressed rumination, increased risk of metabolic disorders, and long-term productivity losses. We will discuss how inflammation interacts with other physiological stressors and cover practical strategies for prevention and intervention aimed at improving health and performance during this critical window.	Saturday, August 29, 2026 9:30:00 AM
Matthew C. Dodd	Saturday, August 29, 2026 10:30:00 AM
Got calcium? Optimizing transition rations for early lactation success Jessica McArt Managing calcium dynamics during the transition period is critical for preventing dyscalcemia and its cascade of health and production challenges. This session will break down the mechanisms of action behind the three most common prefresh calcium management strategies—DCAD diets, zeolite-based approaches, and “no intervention” alternatives. We’ll highlight bottlenecks that compromise ration effectiveness and discuss how proactive monitoring can keep cows on track. Attendees will leave with actionable steps to strengthen their role as preventative consultants, ensuring transition diets deliver the support fresh cows need for optimal health and performance.	Saturday, August 29, 2026 2:00:00 PM
David T. Brennan	Saturday, August 29, 2026 3:00:00 PM
Luis Mendonca	Saturday, August 29, 2026 3:45:00 PM
Virtual Fresh Pen: Consulting From a Distance Eric Rooker As large animal practices shrink in number and territories grow it can be increasingly difficult to set up routine fresh pen herd check. These pens that may have been checked once a week or once every other week in the past have slowly been phased out due to staffing and time issues. However, the need for oversight into the fresh pen is still there. To facilitate these audits from afar we can use modern technologies such as activity systems, rumination monitoring, temperature trends and digital records to virtually consult. Improving oversight, husbandry, creating billables such as additional surgeries and expanding our consulting opportunities.	Saturday, August 29, 2026 4:45:00 PM

General

Title

Date

Flourishing Veterinary Medicine: A Game of Dollars and Sense

Eric Rooker
In a world of ever-increasing salaries as well as general compensation why do we continue to see so much dissatisfaction and burnout? Theoretically, our new doctors and support staff should be happier and healthier than ever. Yet that is not the case. So what are we missing? We will discuss the psychological implications of this new trend and their well understood shortcomings as researched by our peers in psychology. By the end of our discussion we hope to challenge both owner and associate/staff preconceptions of compensation and open dialog about what it will take to create a flourishing veterinary medical field.

Thursday, August 27, 2026
10:30:00 AM

Joint Beef/Dairy

Title	Date
Everybody Hurts - Assessing Pain in Animals Eduarda Bortoluzzi Painful husbandry procedures are routinely applied to food-producing animals, often with limited or no use of analgesic strategies. With repeated exposure, veterinarians and animal caretakers may become desensitized to these interventions, which can contribute to the misinterpretation of maintenance behaviors—such as standing, feeding, or ruminating—as an indication that animals are not experiencing pain. Importantly, the persistence of these behaviors does not necessarily reflect an absence of nociception or distress. A broad spectrum of animal-based welfare indicators, including alterations in posture, vocalizations, facial expressions, avoidance responses, and outcomes from preference or motivation tests, has been established by animal welfare scientists to more accurately detect pain-associated states. Greater integration of these behavioral and welfare assessments into routine veterinary practice can facilitate earlier recognition of negative affective states and promote a transition from reactive pain mitigation to proactive pain prevention in livestock management.	Thursday, August 27, 2026 1:30:00 PM
Brett Boyum	Thursday, August 27, 2026 2:15:00 PM
Benjamin Bennett	Thursday, August 27, 2026 3:00:00 PM
Liver and Learn - Biopsy and Interpretation Scott Fritz This session reviews practical methods for performing liver biopsies in cattle and outlines a systematic approach to interpreting test results. Key mineral values, normal reference ranges, and expected animal-to-animal variation, and appropriate timing of sample collection are discussed to guide decisions on when testing is warranted and how many animals should be sampled. Recommendations for responding to abnormal findings, including ration evaluation and targeted adjustments to supplementation, are provided along with considerations for incorporating biopsy results into herd-level management.	Thursday, August 27, 2026 4:00:00 PM
Taking Care of the Cows and the People Jill Lehman Every veterinary practice has two herds: • The animals you treat. • The people who care for them. When you tend to both with equal intention, your practice will thrive. The Story of Maple Creek Veterinary — A Practice with Good Medicine but a Tired Herd In this session, attendees will learn about the clinic's people and culture, what the practice owner realized, how they went about solving it, and the outcomes that transpired. Attendees will receive insights likely mirroring some of their current people/cultural challenges, and receive actionable insights to help them make changes that improve the wellbeing of both the cows and their people.	Thursday, August 27, 2026 4:45:00 PM

Mixed Animal

Title	Date
Clare Scully	Friday, August 28, 2026 8:00:00 AM
Clare Scully	Friday, August 28, 2026 8:00:00 AM
Christopher Burrows	Friday, August 28, 2026 8:45:00 AM
Oberlin McDaniel	Friday, August 28, 2026 9:30:00 AM
Clare Scully	Friday, August 28, 2026 10:45:00 AM
Callie Fogle	Friday, August 28, 2026 11:30:00 AM
Callie Fogle	Friday, August 28, 2026 1:45:00 PM
Jocelyn Romano	Friday, August 28, 2026 2:30:00 PM
Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome - A pain in your gut? Julie Settlage This session will cover the importance of accurate diagnosis of Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome, treatment plans, including medications and management factors, and strategies to optimize prevention.	Friday, August 28, 2026 3:15:00 PM
Julie Settlage	Friday, August 28, 2026 4:15:00 PM
Molly Rice	Friday, August 28, 2026 5:15:00 PM
Jessica Hunt	Friday, August 28, 2026 5:15:00 PM

Students

Title	Date
Show Up. Own Up. Build Up. - Foundational Leadership Anyone Can Practice Chad Brown You don’t need a title, a certain personality, or a perfect career plan to lead in veterinary medicine. This talk breaks leadership down into three simple habits: showing up when it’s hard, owning your decisions and mistakes, and using whatever role you’re in to make the people around you better. Practiced consistently, these everyday behaviors earn trust with clients, respect from colleagues, and confidence in yourself—starting right where you are and carrying forward into whatever comes next.	Saturday, August 29, 2026 8:00:00 AM
Managing Perfectionism: Good Enough is Under-rated M. Jane Jenkins Perfectionism is often misunderstood as a strength—an indicator of high standards, motivation, productivity, and excellence. In reality, perfectionism reflects a rigid striving for flawlessness accompanied by intense self-criticism and fear of failure, which undermines productivity, creativity, and well-being. Rather than enhancing performance, perfectionism frequently leads to burnout, anxiety, depression, feelings of shame, and procrastination. Misunderstood as a failure of motivation or time management, procrastination is, in fact, a protective response to fear of making mistakes, being evaluated, or falling short of unrealistic rigid standards. Procrastination delays action by rejecting “good enough,” even though good enough is often what makes progress possible. This presentation will explore perfectionism through a psychological and neurobiological lens, examining its developmental and etiological roots, distinct types, relationship to procrastination, patterns of brain activation that reinforce perfectionistic behavior, and evidence-based interventions aimed at supporting healthier striving and more sustainable performance. The objective of this presentation is to expose perfectionism’s flaws and to introduce “good enough” as an often undervalued consideration that frequently represents high-quality thoughtful work completed within realistic human limits – something perfectionism actively undermines.	Saturday, August 29, 2026 8:45:00 AM
Kayla Clark	Saturday, August 29, 2026 9:30:00 AM
Mike D. Apley	Saturday, August 29, 2026 10:30:00 AM
Mike D. Apley	Saturday, August 29, 2026 2:00:00 PM
Dairy Records: Leveraging herd data to better advise your clients Robert A. Lynch Analyzing herd records can help you gain insight on herd performance opportunities and inform you of emerging issues prior to farm visits, thus increasing the value you bring to your clients. This session will cover strategies for getting started in record analysis, common pitfalls to avoid, and tips to make this effort beneficial to you and your clients.	Saturday, August 29, 2026 3:00:00 PM
Offering Nutrition Services and Ration Balancing as a Service David T. Brennan The objective is to communicate the opportunity veterinarians have to provide nutrition services and ration balancing as a service. Veterinary students are poorly prepared to trouble shoot ration based problems on a dairy farm of any size. I feel veterinarians can easily start offering nutrition services and eventually balance rations right out of veterinary school. I plan to expose veterinarians to nutrition services they can immediately start offering and walk through how they can use them to successfully consult on a dairy farm	Saturday, August 29, 2026 3:45:00 PM
''What is on President Hilton's Mind?''. W. Mark Hilton I have three goals every day. Learn something, have fun and help someone. I know I will achieve all three (and I hope you do too!) when we come together and I discover what is on your mind, and hopefully provide some sage advice. I don't profess to have "seen it all", though, after a career in private practice, academia, and industry spanning 42 years, I have seen a lot. Come with questions and let's have fun learning together.	Saturday, August 29, 2026 4:45:00 PM

VPS

Title	Date
If you build it, they will buy: cultivating the next generation of practice owners Gabe E. Middleton This session will discuss identifying the next generation of practice owners, developing a plan to value a practice, and creating a chain of events that are necessary to lead to selling a practice or bringing on a new owner.	Thursday, August 27, 2026 1:30:00 PM
Flexible scheduling: Guidelines for navigating the demands of rural practice Todd Gunderson The objective of this session will be to explore concepts and strategies for navigating the challenges of rural/large animal practice through flexibility in scheduling, the practice of veterinary medicine, and business management. Key concepts will include identifying core values that guide your life and your business so that practitioners can determine which activities are essential to honoring those values. This session will cover topics such as setting clear boundaries between work and personal life, recognizing the need to say no to non-essentials in the present in order to say yes to essentials in the future, as well as clearly defining activities that require the physical presence of a veterinarian versus those that can be delegated. Through the application of these principles, participants will gain greater insight and clarity on when good become the enemy to great, and when great becomes the enemy of good enough.	Thursday, August 27, 2026 2:15:00 PM
Build It and They Will Haul It Robert T Jackman The goal of this project was to develop and sustain veterinary services to provide better service and reach more food animal producers in our county and surrounding counties. The overarching aim is to improve productivity and profitability for food animal producers in the region. The two key objectives to achieve this are: • enable Jackman’s Animal Clinic to broaden the services it offers to food animal producers, increase its efficiency, and further its reach. • provide more consistent experiential learning opportunities to a wider range of high school, college, and veterinary students as well as help educate food animal producers to better care for the animals in their charge. We were limited in what we could accept as haul-in clients and had an increasing number of clients requesting this, so we built a facility to enable us to handle these requests. The clinic addition has allowed us to provide service to clients who wish to bring everything from a load of steers from the stockyard for vaccinations, to the seedstock producer who wants to flush embryos. There is a growing number of clients who have the ability and want to bring an animal to the clinic for care. This is particularly true of small ruminant emergencies as well as cattle dystocia’s or lameness exams. Few clients have the facilities for holding a mature bull for a reproductive exam or a lameness issue. Currently we must send clients with cattle hoof issues two hours to Purdue University or Ohio State University for care. One of the new free services we offer with this facility is beef weigh-in days for 4-H fair entrees for every county in the region. Beef 4-H fair entrees must register and weigh-in every spring for every county. These weigh-ins are held in late winter and are held outside at county fairgrounds. With our facility we can provide an inside experience, working with multiple counties over multiple weekends so there is more flexibility for 4-H students and staff. We will also have a veterinarian on site to discuss any questions the students might have and talk with them about health care, vaccinations, and feeding requirements.	Thursday, August 27, 2026 3:00:00 PM
Alexandru Pop	Thursday, August 27, 2026 4:00:00 PM
Lauren Christensen	Friday, August 28, 2026 8:00:00 AM
Alexandru Pop	Friday, August 28, 2026 8:45:00 AM
Brian Reed	Friday, August 28, 2026 9:30:00 AM
Keelan Lewis	Friday, August 28, 2026 10:45:00 AM
If you build it, they will stay - retention of large animal veterinarians Gabe E. Middleton This session will discuss methods to attract and retain talented large animal veterinarians. The presentation will touch on making practices attractive to students, presenting a strong employment offer, and mentorship and team-building strategies to keep veterinarians engaged in large animal practice.	Friday, August 28, 2026 11:30:00 AM

AABP Conference

AABP Annual Conference Sessions

Beef

Another one bites the dust - late day feedlot mortalities

Beef Cows Get That Too! Johne's, BLV, and More.

Theileria and Anaplasmosis: A practitioner's perspective of initial exposure in a naive population and current management.

A Practitioner's Perspective of Theileria and Anaplasmosis in Practice

How now, pregnant cow? Tips for preparing replacement heifers for life in the herd

Antimicrobial monitoring: Practical tips for beef cattle veterinarians

Bovine heart disease: practical insights from feedyard data

Beef on Dairy - health protocols, facilities, calf range stage of production

Clinical Skills

Lung Ultrasound in Feedlot Cattle

The Eyes Have It: Surgery of the Eye

Field Surgery topics in calves and Field Surgery Topics in Cows

Field Cow Surgery

Medical Ultrasound - Ultrasounds Are Not Just for the Rectum!

Blow Holes and Blow Outs! Strategies for performing a rumenostomy and rectal prolapse amputation

Dairy

Management of Recycled Bedding Systems to Enhance Udder Health

Contagious Mastitis: Manage It Before It Manages You

Turning Data Into Decisions: Advancing Mastitis Lab Excellence

Getting them off on the right hoof: Colostrum management for dairy calves

Getting Off the Right Hoof: Building Strong Immunity With Colostrum—Not Antibiotics

Managing inflammation in early lactation

Got calcium? Optimizing transition rations for early lactation success

Virtual Fresh Pen: Consulting From a Distance

General

Flourishing Veterinary Medicine: A Game of Dollars and Sense

Joint Beef/Dairy

Everybody Hurts - Assessing Pain in Animals

Liver and Learn - Biopsy and Interpretation

Taking Care of the Cows and the People

Mixed Animal

Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome - A pain in your gut?

Students

Show Up. Own Up. Build Up. - Foundational Leadership Anyone Can Practice

Managing Perfectionism: Good Enough is Under-rated

Dairy Records: Leveraging herd data to better advise your clients

Offering Nutrition Services and Ration Balancing as a Service

''What is on President Hilton's Mind?''.

VPS

If you build it, they will buy: cultivating the next generation of practice owners

Flexible scheduling: Guidelines for navigating the demands of rural practice

Build It and They Will Haul It

If you build it, they will stay - retention of large animal veterinarians