Recipient Organization
WISCONSIN VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION INC
4610 S BILTMORE LN STE 107
MADISON,WI 53718
Performing Department
Food Armor
Non Technical Summary
The Food Armor® Veterinary Student Educational Program takes the nationally known Food Armor® Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) for Proper Drug Use Program and further customizes it specifically for veterinary students. The Food Armor® HACCP for Proper Drug Use program is an essential piece towards continued and enhanced food safety in the dairy industry through implementation of risk management HACCP plans. Food Armor® has two primary objectives: 1) To reduce meat and milk residues (food safety) 2) Long-term appropriate drug use (transparency and accountability).The goals of the veterinary student Food Armor® training program is first, to educate veterinary students specifically in the areas of residues and responsible drug use in the dairy industry and second, to provide them with a sustainable business model that can be used to enhance veterinary services in rural areas through implementation of drug use HACCP plans on farm. Following classroom training, new graduate veterinarians would have access to the proposed Cloud-based resource program which serves as support for program implementation on farms and allows for ongoing outreach support and assistance from Food Armor® staff. Project plans include the offering of full program training workshops in 8 different veterinary colleges during the 3 year grant period and the development of a cloud-based Food Armor® resource program. The training program consists of 2 full days of in-depth education and discussion regarding techniques to minimize risks of violative drug residues on-farm and methods of increasing transparency and accountability of drug use in the dairy industry.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Specific Aim #1: Provide training opportunities for 3rd and 4th year veterinary students through the Food Armor® program and demonstrate how it can be used as a sustainable practice business model to mitigate veterinary service shortage areas.1) Target to have 450 veterinary students trained through the program during the 3 year grant periodWhile the Food Armor® program will continue to provide trainings to veterinarians at all stages of their careers and all areas of the profession, the goal of this project is to expand and customize a veterinary student training program. Providing education on food safety and risk management prior to graduation allows these new graduate veterinarians the ability to implement responsible drug use practices within their practices and on their client farms. Emphasizing a strong veterinarian/producer relationship as the foundation of a veterinary practice helps support a sustainable business model allowing the impact on rural veterinarian shortage areas to continue after funding has ceased. Long term, the goal of the Food Armor® Veterinary Student Educational Program is to become a regular and key component to every food animal veterinarian's veterinary medical education.Specific Aim # 2: Convert current program materials into an electronic Cloud-based format that will facilitate the implementation and maintenance of HACCP plans for proper drug use on farms and serve as a means of communication and support for Food Armor® trained veterinarians.1) Goal launch date of March 1st, 2017Veterinarians trained through the program are provided access to all Food Armor® program materials to assist with on-farm implementation of the HACCP for proper drug use concepts. The program currently provides a wide variety of paper templates which are useful but may limit implementation of the program, especially in veterinary service shortage areas where time management and efficiency are crucial. Converting current program materials into an electronic, easily accessible format will allow veterinarians to streamline the HACCP implementation process on farms. Trained veterinary students will have access to all Cloud-based program materials and this format will allow for continued outreach support when issues, concerns or questions arise. Follow up support and resources provided by professional veterinary associations are recommended to help new graduate veterinarians establish themselves in food animal practice.
Project Methods
Methods and Evaluation for Specific Aim #1:The proposed project is to develop a veterinary student specific Food Armor® training program which would allow veterinary students in their last two years of education to complete both Phase I and Phase II prior to graduation. A student specific Phase I workshop has already been established as part of the 4th year Core Skills curriculum at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine (UW-SVM) for dairy interested students. Previously completed workshops with UW-SVM were well received and Phase I trainings will continued to be offered twice per year through the commitment and collaboration of Dr. Nigel Cook, BVSc Cert CHP DBR MRCVS, Department Chair of Medical Sciences, Professor in Food Animal Production Medicine.In addition, North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine has shown a great deal of interest in providing both Phase I and Phase II training opportunities for dairy interested veterinary students. In collaboration with Dr. Derek Foster, DVM, PhD, DACVIM, Assistant Professor of Ruminant Medicine, Department of Population Health and Pathobiology at North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicinethis grant would cover all travel expenses and speaker accommodations providing full Phase I and Phase II training opportunities for North Carolina State's 4th year veterinary students.One goal of the proposed project is to provide full Phase I and Phase II trainings at six veterinary schools, in addition to NC State and UW-SVM, during the 3 year grant period.Emphasis would be placed on veterinary schools in highly populated dairy states including (in no particular order) Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, California, New York and Pennsylvania. A long term goal of the program is to establish Food Armor® as a core curriculum component in the training of all food animal veterinary medicine students.The expectations of trained students, following completion of Food Armor® trainings, include a comprehensive understanding of current drug regulations in regards to food animals, a thorough understanding and associated plan on how to implement drug use management strategies on farm and a structured framework to develop these plans with producers. Pre and post training surveys will be conducted in order to measure the impact of the Food Armor®training on veterinary students with a focus on increased knowledge and skills specific to on-farm drug use and regulations. Additionally, follow-up surveys will be conducted 12 and 24 months post-graduation to gather information on specific benefits achieved through the training and the resulting impact on rural areas and to identify any areas where additional outreach support is needed. These surveys will collect information on where these new graduates are practicing, what skills acquired during the Food Armor® training they regularly use and how frequently and how many farms (and cow numbers) they have served in veterinary shortage areas.Methods and Evaluation for Specific Aim #2:In addition to expanding training to veterinary schools across the country, a second goal of this proposed project is convert all program resources into a Cloud-based format providing ongoing support for trained veterinarians. In previous experiences, trained veterinarians leave the classroom-based workshops enthused and excited to provide this service for their clients. Identifying time efficient opportunities to improve the implementation and management processes is crucial for the success of Food Armor® risk management plans. By providing an electronic Cloud-based version of all program resources data input could be efficiently streamlined and information, both farm and veterinarian specific information, would be accessible anywhere there is an internet connection. Benefits include greater usability and efficiency at the farm resulting in better application of Food Armor® concepts.Plans for the Cloud-based project include transitioning all Food Armor® program materials to a Cloud server to allow access anywhere there is an internet connection. Benefits of this type of format include instantaneous updating capabilities by the veterinarian for on farm protocols and standard operating procedures, employee training, record review and oversight activities.Efforts to begin transitioning program materials to a Cloud-based format have begun and once completed, the Cloud-based format will provide a single source of all program data, allowing for the potential to query collated data on a large scale across the program. Specific developmental steps that are required to successfully transition the program include:Build a solid foundation with referential integrityBuild in capabilities for full integrated cloud data storageThis would allow capability for users to see their own data but not the data of others.Provide security at the cloud level to ensure privacy of all data collected.Build front end portal applications to be used by various groups allowing for specialized reports and data entry screensFood Armor® personnel will require access to all data for inquires, evaluation and analysis.Veterinarians will need access to all data from their client's farms, with the ability to edit, review and analyze.Dairy producers will only need access to their own data. The farm portals will take on two versions: an all-inclusive portal for the main farm computer, and a simplified portal to be used on portable electronic devices anywhere on the farm.Centralized data storage, with the ability to query and analyze, allows for transparency and accountability of drug use throughout the dairy industry. Gathering nationwide industry data, while maintaining confidentiality, will allow the Food Armor® program to demonstrate to processors, retailers, consumers and regulatory agencies how the dairy industry is using and managing on farm drug use. This permits the dairy industry to provide needed transparency and it demonstrates continuous improvement regarding the production of safe milk and meat products.Long term, the Cloud-based program would have the capabilities to grow based on the evolving needs of veterinarians, producers and the industry. The initial development will create a foundation allowing for a wide range of program capabilities for veterinarians to utilize on farms including employee training modules, employee management tools, drug inventory, daily treatment records and other day to day operations of a dairy farm.The main evaluator of the success of the Cloud-based resource program is the full development and transition, resulting in a valuable program for all Food Armor®trained veterinarians. Numbers of veterinarians using the Cloud-based program will be collected and the ability to gather data via a centralized data storage system allows assessment of the impact of Food Armor®on dairy farms and food safety nationwide. Once complete, collated data will be routinely analyzed for current trends in drug use, percentage of farms implementing treatment protocols, SOPs, and record-keeping systems, veterinary oversight activities, employee performance measures and opportunities for additional training. By examination and evaluation of these areas, the Food Armor® program will be able to demonstrate overall trends and strengths in the industry while also identifying areas that need additional educational efforts. This information can then be shared to other industry stakeholders, including milk and meat processors, producer associations, regulatory agencies and colleges of veterinary medicine.