The Companion Animal III Symposium at the 2021 ASAS National Meeting focused on dietary supplements in companion animal nutrition. Several speakers presented different, though highly relevant, perspectives on the potential, discovery, development, and regulatory concerns about the inclusion of dietary supplements in the diets of companion animals.

The Forages and Pastures Symposium I on Friday, July 16th, began with Dr. DelCurto discussing the ongoing challenges of designing research for beef cattle production in extensive environments. Previous study designs trying to get enough observations for statistical inference required cattle to be brought in from the rangeland each day, sorted, fed, and then let back out.

The 2021 ASAS Cell Biology Symposium that took place on Friday, July 16th, focused on the role of epigenetics in production and health. Dr. Peterson started off the symposium by discussing the role epigenetics has in maternal and fetal programming specifically looking at the pancreas.

Dr. Poore jump-started the SSASAS Kunkle Symposium to discuss byproduct feeds in the Southeastern beef production systems. There are many alternative feeds available and used for both cow/calf and stocker cattle in this region. In addition, classification of the feeds (waste materials, waste products, byproducts, and coproducts) may also influence when to use these alternatives.

Thank you so much for hosting the blood drive at your annual conference. 23 donors attempted to donate. We had a fantastic number of first-time donors (13) who came forward. We ended the day at 84% of the hospital pledge with 21 units.

Dr. Maltecca's presentation began by introducing how feed costs, amount, and quality of lean products, improving diets, exploiting livestock genetic variability and focusing on individual variation all play a role in producing protein efficiently. His research group focuses on applying the gut microbiome in swine production, with a particular focus on growth and feed efficiency.

The 2021 ASAS Comparative Gut Physiology Symposium focused on the integration of parents and offspring in the promotion, evaluation, and improvement of gut health. Overall, the speakers agreed that there are very defined times in young animal lives, before and after birth, when an intervention can improve, or in some cases, decrease their potential for health and productivity.

Genomics is a rapidly expanding field that requires unique education to use knowledge from quantitative genetics. However, it is challenging to provide education to meet the needs of the rapid genomic revolution particularly with limited funding, faculty, and expertise. In the early 2000s, the USDA defined a need for solid infrastructure to deliver information about advances in animal genetics.

Dr. Christine B. Navarre presented the first talk about “Best Management Practices for Parasite Control in Beef Herds in the Southeastern United States”. Recently, it has been difficult to create a parasite control program as the ability of cattle dewormers has been worsening overtime. Since there are no new products in development, a new way of managing parasites is needed to slow down resistance.

Dr. Spicer began by discussing how reproductive efficiency is one of the main factors affecting profitability in farm animals and how the overall goal is to improve reproductive efficiency. Understanding the mechanisms that control ovarian follicular development may lead to ways to improve reproductive efficiency.

Nora Bello of Kansas State presented a riveting discussion focused on “Statistics for Reproducible Research in Companion Animal Nutrition”. The major topics of the discussion explored current understanding of P-values and hypothesis testing with a lens of companion animal nutrition and the associated argument that statistical analyses must be fully understood by the user.

The Ruminant Nutrition Symposium II began with Dr. Daniel Loy reviewing the past forty years of the cattle industry in the Midwest. The industry consistently deals with change; technology advancements (adoption), black swan events (reaction), and disruptive technologies.

The symposium focused on “The Evolution and Application of Information Technology to Assist with Animal Production Analytics” and was introduced by Luis O. Tedeschi, PhD from Texas A&M University. The Nation Animal Nutrition Program (NANP) was established in 2010 to support research requested by stakeholders. It addresses challenges in research, education, and teaching, and supports agencies in animal agriculture.

The National Meetings will provide an opportunity for attendees to learn the latest steps taken towards implementation of voluntary accreditation for BS degree Animal Science programs.

American Society of Animal Science Journals earned large Impact Factor increases, led by Animal Frontiers, 5.304 (co-published by ASAS, EAAP, AMSA, CSAS, and WAAP) and Journal of Animal Science, 3.159, according to Clarivate’s annual Journal Citation Report (JCR) for 2020.

Devani et al. (2021) recently published a study, in the Journal of Animal Science, that used genome-wide association study (GWAS) to estimate the genetic correlation between young and mature teat and udder scores to determine if these traits are influenced by the same genes.

On June 25th, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee met to consider its version of agriculture appropriations for fiscal year 2022.

The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) Working Group was charged with assessing and making recommendations to enhance the rigor, transparency, and translatability in animal research by improving the experimental design, optimizing translational validity, enhancing training, and increasing the transparency of research studies involving animal models.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced supplementary assistance for farmers, ranchers, and agricultural businesses as part of the USDA Pandemic Assistance for Producers Initiative.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently received a letter from Joe Courtney (D-CT), Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-PA), and 55 other members of Congress supporting the increase of dairy consumption in children by allowing schools to offer low-fat, flavored milk as part of school meals programs.