The Washington, DC, area chapter has an active agenda with monthly meetings and is planning a spring symposium. The speakers and topics for our monthly meetings are listed below. We alternate meeting sites between CVM (Rockville, MD) and USDA, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Our mini-symposium is planned for April 26.

September 14, 2017, Rockville, MD

Speaker: Kasey Moyes, University of Maryland, Department of Animal and Avian Sciences

Subject: Robotic dairy farm case study results (n = 4 farms; herd summary, including production, reproduction, and disease, and BT culture results), and a brief description of a survey that was recently published in The Professional Animal Scientist.

October 12, 2017, second Thursday, Beltsville Bldg 003, Room 020

Speaker: Paul VanRaden, research geneticist, Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, USDA

Subject: Genomic Tools to Improve Progress and Preserve Variation for Future Generations

November 9, 2017, Rockville, MD

Speaker: Dragan Momcilovic, veterinary medical officer, Division of Animal Feeds, Center for Veterinary Medicine, US Food and Drug Administration

Subject: The Veterinary Feed Directive: An Update

December 14, 2017, Beltsville, MD

Speaker: Lowell Randel, founder of The Randel Group, which represents animal science organizations in Washington, DC

Subject: Congressional Activity on Agricultural Farm Legislation

January 11, 2018, Rockville, MD

Speaker: Ciro Ruiz Feria, PAS, of FDA’s CVM Division of Animal Feeds and chapter president elect, is going to talk about the potential use of insects in animal food. There has been interest in this topic and in the establishment of AAFCO ingredient definition(s) for black soldier fly larvae in various forms.

February 8, 2018, Beltsville Bldg 005, Room 021

Speaker: Leslie Joyce, University of Maryland, development officer, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, is going to talk about the Washington, DC, chapter of ARPAS student scholarship. The amount of the scholarship is $2,000. Funding is via the chapter, its members, and other supporters.

March 8, 2018, second Thursday, Rockville, deli conference room; speaker to be determined.

April 25, 2018, April 26, 2018, mini-symposium, Beltsville Bldg 005, Room 021

Title: Agriculture Technology (GMO) and Consumer Protection.

Additionally, the chapter is starting an initiative on bringing undergraduate and graduate students into the chapter to stimulate more interest in ARPAS and animal science.