First off, I am truly humbled to serve as your president and represent an organization that continues to serve animal producers, industry, and others desiring research-based technical information on the animal sciences. No other organization comes close to providing certification and continuing education, commitment to a code of ethics, and disseminating the caliber of applied scientific information through their own peer-reviewed journal.

The 2016 ARPAS Symposium at JAM in Salt Lake City was “Inflammation alters nutrient metabolism and animal performance.” The slate of speakers included immunologist Kirk Klasing, rumen microbiologist T. G. Nagaraja, veterinarian Chris Chase, and ruminant nutritionists Barry Bradford and Reinaldo Cooke. The symposium was well attended. Manuscripts from the speakers will be published in a forthcoming issue of The Professional Animal Scientist.

The 2016 ARPAS Governing Council and Annual Business meetings were held in conjunction with the JAM as well. It was exciting to learn of the creativity of member engagement across all our state/regional chapters! When the opportunity presents itself, I would encourage you to learn what other chapters are doing for their members and to encourage new membership to see if they might also be useful within your chapter.

Two other areas we are excited about: the successful move of The Professional Animal Scientist journal to Elsevier and the upcoming launch of our newly designed ARPAS website. Both of these will generate increased use and visibility of our organization that continues to thrive based on the engagement of members across and within all chapters.

In closing, on behalf of the entire ARPAS family, we thank Bob Wettemann for his leadership as our President during the past year. We also give special thanks to our Executive vice-president, Kenneth Cummings, and Kelsey Grant of FASS for their continued dedication to the long-term success of our organization.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey M. DeFrain, PhD, DPL ACAS – Nutrition
President, ARPAS