AVEPM 2011 Schwabe Symposium

"Inviting logic to the table: using epidemiology to resolve disease controversies"

A Symposium Honoring the Professional Accomplishments of Dr. Dale D. Hancock

The Association of Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (AVEPM) is pleased to announce the program for the 2011 Schwabe Symposium, honoring the professional achievements of Dr. Dale D. Hancock. The symposium will be held in Chicago on Sunday, Dec 4, 2011, at the Chicago Marriott, Downtown Magnificent Mile, Chicago, Illinois, just prior to the opening of the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD). There is no registration fee for the symposium itself, and all are welcome to attend. Please visit the CRWAD website ( http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/mip/crwad/ ) for full details on the conference and for booking rooms at the hotel at the conference rate.

11:30 Light buffet lunch (soup and salad) for symposium attendees

12:30 Introductory remarks

12:35 Title: “BSE and vCJD: Emerging science, public pressure and the vagaries of policy-making.”
Will Hueston, Professor, Center for Animal Health and Food Safety, University of Minnesota

13:15 Title: “Data viewed through rose-tinted glasses: the example of bighorn sheep pneumonia.”
Tom Besser, Professor, Department of Microbiology and Pathology, Washington State University

13:55 Title: “Evidence-based infection control in clinical practice: If you buy clothes for the emperor, will he wear them?”
Paul Morley, Professor, Department of Clinical Sciences, Colorado State University

14:35 Break and Refreshments

15:05 Title: “The front lines of epidemiology: balancing the need for action with need for logic and information.”
Susan Lance, Food and Drug Administration Liaison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA

Keynote address:

15:45 Title: “Veterinary epidemiology: the cavalry of bio-medicine.”
Dale D. Hancock, Professor, Field Disease Investigation Unit, Washington State University

16:40 Panel Discussion

17:00 Adjourn

18:00 – 20:00 pm CRWAD Researchers Reception and Poster Viewing

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The Calvin W. Schwabe Award is presented annually by the AVEPM to honor lifetime achievement in veterinary epidemiology and preventive medicine. The 2011 honoree is:

Dale D. Hancock, DVM, PhD

Dr. Dale Hancock is Professor of Epidemiology in the Field Disease Investigation Unit (FDIU) at the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Hancock earned his BS (1974) and DVM (1975) from Texas A&M University, and completed an ambulatory food animal residency in 1975-6 at The Ohio State University. After a stint in private practice at Scott Veterinary Hospital in Stephenville TX (where his fame for feline practice expertise persists), he returned to The Ohio State University to join the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center to complete his MS (1981) and PhD (1983). His MS graduate work involved evaluation of the role of fermented colostrum in providing local passive immunity to neonatal calves. His PhD graduate work considered the epidemiology of diarrheal morbidity and mortality in dairy heifer calves.

After a short stint at Mississippi State University, he accepted a position as epidemiologist in the Field Disease Investigation Unit at Washington State University in 1984, where he has since remained. Dr. Hancock has taught epidemiology to veterinary students and undergraduates, as well as public health, data management and analysis, ecology of infectious disease, production medicine, large animal medicine, and population medicine. He led numerous farm visits for field disease investigations for the FDIU, and many of these investigations included veterinary student training. In recent years, Dale has dedicated almost every weekend to voluntarily leading farm visits intended to introduce non-farm background veterinary students to agricultural animal production systems.

During his tenure at WSU, Dr. Hancock developed and led a pioneering research program in the field of pre-harvest food safety, especially focusing on Escherichia coli O157:H7. This research program defined many of the key epidemiologic features of that agent in diverse animal populations. His research has been guided by a healthy skepticism of ‘magic bullets’ and a firm belief that the most useful interventions are based on logical modifications of management practices. His research, funded by >$12 million in grants as principal investigator, plus >$1.2 million as co-investigator, has thus far resulted in over 150 refereed manuscripts.

While Dr. Hancock remained at Washington State University for much of his career, his influence extended more broadly to an entire generation of food animal clinicians through his publication entitled Population Medicine News. This periodical existed between 1988 through 1996; for much of that period issued on a bi-weekly basis. Population Medicine News covered a wide variety of epidemiologic concepts and ideas, reflecting many of Dale’s broad-ranging interests. For example, a true random sampling of the archives reveals issues entitled ‘Making population statistics real (and useful)”, 9 Nov 1992; “Population gestalt”, 5 Aug 1991; “On the use of serologic tests to diagnose disease”, 15 May, 1996; “Sampling bias in disease surveillance”, 2 Oct 1989; “Drug residues”, 23 Jan 1989; “Troubleshooting milking systems”, 20 Aug 1990; “Sensitivity analysis with a spreadsheet”, 1 April 1991; and “Heuristic tools for temporal analysis”, 7 Dec 1992. Regular readers of these newsletters can attest to the fact that the material was always presented in a direct and interesting way, with real life examples, and of course with Dale’s characteristic sense of humor.

For more information about CRWAD please visit the following web site:

http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/microbiology/crwad/