Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Annual Meeting Agenda

NCCC-042 and S-1061

January 6 - 7, 2016

Rosen Plaza Hotel – 9700 International Drive, Orlando, FL 32819

Morning Session: Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Joint Session

NCCC-042 members present: Tayo Adedokun (University of Kentucky), Layi Adeola (Purdue University), Michael Azain (University of Georgia), Samuel Baidoo (University of Minnesota), Thomas Crenshaw (University of Wisconsin), Ryan Dilger (University of Illinois), Gretchen Hill (Michigan State University), Rajesh Jha (University of Hawaii at Manoa- Secretary), Brian Kerr (USDA-ARS, Ames, IA –Vice-Chair), Sung Woo Kim (North Carolina State University), Shengfa Liao (Mississippi State University), Phillip Miller (University of Nebraska), Jim L. Nelssen (Kansas State University – Chair), Chad Paulk (Texas A&M University), Marcia Shannon (University of Missouri), Hans H Stein (University of Illinois).

S-1061 members present:

Merlin Lindemann (University of Kentucky), Tsing Cheng Tsai (for Charles Maxwell) (University of Arkansas), Crystal Levesque (South Dakota State University), Mark Estienne (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), Lee Chiba (Auburn University), Eric van Heugten (North Carolina State University), Robert Dove (University of Georgia), Joel Brendemuhl (University of Florida)

Administrative Advisor: Neal Merchen  

Guests: Charlotte Kirk Baer, USDA-NIFA (Skype); Chris Hostetler (National Pork Board), Kevin Touchette (AFIA and Ajinomoto)

The meeting was called to order at 8:03 am by Jim Nelssen. Jim Nelssen informed the members that Charles Maxwell could not join the meeting due to personal reasons. So, Crystal Levesque served as Chair for S-1061 in Dr. Maxwell’s absence.

Introductions of both committees followed.

Introduction of officers, committee members, and guests:

S-1061: Charles Maxwell - Chair; Crystal Levesque Vice-Chair; Eric van Heugten - Secretary

NCCC-042: Jim Nelssen – Chair; Brian Kerr – Vice-Chair; Rajesh Jha – Secretary

Comments from Administrative Advisors:

NCCC-042: Neal Merchen: Neal provided a brief update. He mentioned that it was a project development year. The NCCC-042 project was reviewed and approved in October, 2014, which was a big accomplishment of the year. The current project is approved until 2019. Next year is the mid-term review of the project by the multi-state review committee. He acknowledged some members of the NCCC-042 for their efforts, especially Marcia Shannon. Dr. Tayo Adedokun (University of Kentucky) is a new member to the NCCC-42 committee and Dr. Chad Paulk (Texas A&M University) attended for the first time (became member last year). The project was favorably received and the links to the swine industry were acknowledged during the project review. All members have been added as participants to the committee with the new committee project. However, an issue with the new website after an initial launch on the new NIMSS website last month, still needs to be fixed. He also indicated that the annual report of the accomplishments must be filed within 60 days after the meeting.

S-1061: Crystal Levesque reported for Phillip Elzer, who is the new administrative advisor for S-1061. He was not able to attend the meeting and because he is new to the committee, there was nothing specific to report.

Next Year’s meeting: Jan 5-6, 2017 at the Rosen Plaza Hotel Orlando.

Rajesh proposed Hawaii as an option for next year’s meeting venue and he indicated his willingness to contribute in organizing the event there. Several participants liked the proposal but asked if the logistic issues, especially flight cost might be too expensive. After discussion, it was proposed to have next year’s meeting in Orlando.

Motion: Tom Crenshaw
Second: Marcia Shannon

Jim Nelssen declared that the motion passed unanimously. Jim also informed the committees that this year’s registration fee was paid by the National Pork Board. Both committees expressed sincere thanks to the National Pork Board for their continued generous support.

A brief discussion followed regarding past members of the committee. Dr. Don Mahan sent his greetings to the committees. Dr. Pettigrew is retired, Dr. Allee is doing well, and Dr. Harper is retired and teaches high school.

Program Update - NIFA: Charlotte Kirk Baer

Charlotte Kirk Baer joined at 9:00 am (via Skype). Charlotte shared that Congress passed the budget of NIFA as a bipartisan bill, so sustainability of the program is assured for now. Good news is that funding for the agency resulted in a 7.7% increase for the Agri-food Initiative and NIFA receives a total of $1.3 billion. Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy (Director of NIFA, USDA) has been very instrumental in convincing Congress in achieving this increased funding and continuing the program.

National Animal Nutrition Program (NANP) was funded for another 5 years with funding of $1.1M/5yr. For that program, 4 administrative advisors will be serving along with a Program Chair. For all three groups in the NANP, new membership for a few positions was requested. The decision of selected members will be made by late January or early February.

The webpage for all the National Programs is on a common platform (NIMSS website) now. However, there are some website issues to yet be resolved.

Ms. Kirk Baer discussed research programs of NIFA in general. In addition to the regular Foundation program, she highlighted the Exploratory, Critical Agricultural Research and Extension Program (CARE) and Engineering product process program. The Exploratory research program is meant for testing a novel idea with maximum funding of $100K for one year. Funding success was about 12% of invited proposals. The CARE program is designed for finding immediate solution to critical issues at the farm level. There were not enough applicants that met the criteria last year for the CARE program, thus she encouraged participants to apply for that program, as appropriate. The Engineering product process program is meant for developing applied solutions through innovative engineering covering a wide range of problems, including environment and animal welfare. Very few proposals were submitted from the animal science sector for this program last year.

Another interesting program being launched this year is “Collaborative funding between Commodity group/boards and NIFA”.  This dual funding program with funding ranging from $150K to $1M can be a joint project starting this year. The first RFP of this program will be out in 2016, after some technical / administrative issues are resolved with commodity groups/boards.

Dr. Chris Hostetler of NPB commented about the Antibiotic Research program, which will be launched this year. A research program on “Alternatives to antibiotics in swine diets” will be matched ($150K) by NIFA under the “Collaborative funding program”. The program has set five priority areas for 2016. The RFP will be out soon. There is an issue with the funding cycle of NPB and NIFA which will be sorted out to make the program run smoothly. For this program, Dr. Peter Davies is working as a full-time subject matter expert in 2016 and will evaluate models and metrics to assess antibiotic stewardship and use in the U.S. swine industry.

Program Update- National Animal Nutrition Program (NANP): Phillip Miller

Dr. Miller (chair of the Feed Ingredient Composition Committee) reported briefly about the current status and activities of the NANP in past years. The NANP was funded for another 5 years at $1.1M/5yr. For that program, 4 administrative advisors will be serving along with a Program Chair. For all three groups in the NANP, new membership positions are available.

Dr. Miller said that NANP contributed in developing the feed composition tables used in NRC publications. Thus, the ingredient composition database is being strengthened. Two funded postdoctoral fellows are currently working on the feed composition table to update the beef NRC and dairy NRC.  Also the group is writing a manuscript relative to large database and cluster analysis. In addition, work is continuing to strengthen the swine feed database.  The feed ingredient committee is also collaborating with the modeling committee.

Dr. Ryan Dilger (member of the Feed Ingredient Composition Committee) added that this database will be updated on a regular basis with new information gathered from different sources.

Several station reports were given starting at 9:15 am

Written reports were distributed to all participants.