Watch the interview on Poultry Health Today

Next year marks a big change for the American Association of Avian Pathologists (AAAP). It will hold its first independent meeting, according to current president Louise Dufour-Zavala, DVM, executive director of the Georgia Poultry Laboratory Network.

The 2023 AAAP meeting will be held June 9-16 at the Sawgrass Marriott in Jacksonville, Florida.

“We’re very excited about it,” Dufour-Zavala said in an interview with Poultry Health Today. “It really is going to enhance our own identity as an association. It’s going to give us a lot of flexibility for locations, dates, hotels, registration and the collection of abstracts since there are only 500 of us, compared to a very large organization.”

All previous meetings were held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).

“Of course, with AVMA, we continue to be a very close constituent, and that does not change our relationship at all,” Dufour-Zavala said.

Leadership symposium added

The 2023 meeting will include a leadership symposium organized by the AAAP Women’s Network Committee. The symposium will focus on leadership skills and professional development not only for women but the entire leadership of AAAP, Dufour-Zavala added.

The Women’s Network Committee is a relatively new addition to AAAP, and it recently won the AAAP best committee award.

“For them to get the award the first or second year that they’ve been a committee has been truly amazing,” Dufour-Zavala said. “There are about 130 people on it. They have their own Facebook page and their own scholarship. They are really an amazing group.”

Other AAAP updates

Another change coming for AAAP members is with the Avian Diseases Journal. After a member survey in 2021, Dufour-Zavala said members indicated they want more review articles and case reports in the journal.

“We talked to our editor, Dr. Y.M. Saif, and we decided to [make those changes],” she said. “What’s also new is we have three associate editors (David Swayne, Haroldo Toro, DVM, and Silke Rautenschlein, DVM) helping. They are all very involved in getting the Avian Diseases Journal closer to what the membership needs.”

The AAAP Procedures Manual was recently changed from a static manual to one that’s updated in real time and posted on the AAAP website at Policy and Procedure Manual. The manual is a source for everything related to AAAP, from its mission and elected offices to committees and scholarships.

The AAAP executive office will be managed by a new team—Nathan Bevans Kerr and Diana Kerr. Both have worked at AAAP in different capacities for several years.