AAVN 2025 Webinar Series
Join the AAVN for an upcoming webinar! These sessions are FREE for members, $20 for non-members*. Student members -- please email aavnexecutive@gmail.com for your registration code. All webinars are submitted for RACE approval of 1 CE credits.
Tuesday, March 25, 7 pm ET
Discussion of Myths of Zoo Nutrition
Speaker: Mike Maslanka, Senior Nutritionist and Head of the Department of Nutrition Science
Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute
Zoo nutritionists are often faced with myriad misinformation or misconceptions when designing appropriate diets for animals in our care. It is challenging to apply relentless skepticism to most of the information available in popular and peer-reviewed articles that are available, yet it is a necessary exercise in order to ensure the best nutritional welfare for the animals in our care. In this presentation, we will discuss some of the historic and most recent examples of myths within the field of zoo nutrition, hopefully set some of them straight, and share how we can start to minimize their impact for the good of our animals.
Mike Maslanka is the senior nutritionist and Head of the Department of Nutrition Science at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. His zoo experience began in the summer of 1990, as a seasonal zoo keeper at a small zoo in Maryland. Since then, he completed an undergraduate degree in Forestry and Wildlife at Virginia Tech, a graduate degree in Animal Science from the University of Minnesota, and a residency in zoo nutrition at the Chicago Zoological Society. He is the Chair of the AZA Nutrition Advisory Group, the Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Zoo and Wildlife Nutrition Foundation, and an active member of both AZA and ZAA. He works with all taxa, with applied research and special interest ranging from harvester ants to whale sharks.
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Tuesday, April 15, 8 pm ET
H5N1 Influenza in Dogs and Cats: Management of Foodborne Risks
Speaker: J. Scott Weese, DVM, DVSc, DACVIM, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph
This talk will provide a general overview of H5N1 influenza and its emergence as a concern in dogs and cats. A focus will be on food safety, risk factors for infection and the role of raw diets and raw milk. Risk reduction measures such as cooking and high-pressure pasteurization will be discussed.
J. Scott Weese, DVM, DVSc, DACVIM is a veterinary internist and Professor at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Director of the University of Guelph Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses, Chief of Infection Control at the Ontario Veterinary College Health Sciences Centre, and is Chair of the WHO Advisory Group for Critically Important Antimicrobials in Human Medicine. He runs the infectious disease website WormsAndGermsBlog
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