Western Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians Names 2015 WCASV Maxwell Award Winners

By Bruce Cochrane

The Western Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians has named the two winners of its inaugural WCASV Maxwell Award.

The Western Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians was formed in 1974 to represent veterinarians in the four western provinces and provide continuing education opportunities.

As part of its 2015 annual general meeting Friday the Association named the winners of the 2015 WCASV Maxwell Award.

Western Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians president Dr. Kurt Preugschas says award was created to support veterinarians and graduate students who are interested swine health and the award is presented to recently graduated veterinarians engaged in swine veterinary practice or graduate students involved in research in swine health and recipients can come from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon or the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Kurt Preugschas-Western Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians:
We have 2 winners this year.

Dr. Jessica Law, Dr, Law graduated from UCVM in Calgary in 2015 with a special interest in swine health.

She developed her interest as an undergrad at UCVM through swine research projects on topics of PCV2 and pain management at castration.

Dr. Law is currently working with Prairie Swine Health Services in Red Deer, Alberta.

The second winner was Dr. Matheus Costa.
Dr. Costa is a graduate student at the WCVM working with Dr. John Harding and Dr. Janet Hill researching novel Brachyspira species that are associated with a reemergence of swine dysentery in western Canada.

This is an increasingly important disease challenge and his current research is focused on developing measures to improve control.

Dr. Preugschas says, in addition to being publicly recognized at the Western Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians annual meeting, each of the winners receives a $2,500 cash award.

Source: Farmscape