The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine hosted the 12th annual Food Animal Medicine Student Symposium on March 22nd and 23rd for this immersive hands on experience!
The Zoetis-Ohio State Food Animal Medicine Student Symposium (FAMSS) is a two day symposium put on by students, for students. Each year industry leaders and veterinarians are brought in for interactive sessions and lectures covering various topics about food producing species including dairy, beef, swine, small ruminants, camelids, poultry, fish and honey bees. Several wet labs were offered that provided students a more hands on experience outside of the classroom!
REVIEW by Jerry Hayes
Ohio State hosted a pretty cool event titled Food Animal Medicine Student Symposium (FAMSS), https://sites.google.com/site/osufamss/ on the campus in Columbus. This is a nationwide opportunity for veterinary students to come to OSU and have an opportunity to hear from speakers and participate in labs on cows, horses, pigs, small animals and now honey bees.
Christian Frazier, OSU Honey Bee Veterinary Club President did a marvelous job of organizing this honey bee focused opportunity.
Honey bees have been included now in the Student Symposium and Dr. Reed Johnson from OSU, Barb Bloetscher and myself had the great honor to introduce vet students who wanted to learn about honey bees in a larger context to this vital part of animal agriculture. Reed introduced honey bees and management fundamentals, I spoke about Varroa destructor mites and Barb did a wet lab on identifying American Foulbrood and Nosema apis and ceranae.
The neat thing was we had vet students who selected this class from Nebraska, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio and Calgary, Canada. All that to say, they were amazed at what honey bee pest, parasites and diseases were exactly on a honey bee and how they impact honey bees as managed pollinators and honey producers along with potential management by beekeepers.
They all of course were introduced to Bee Culture Magazine and given a past issue.
