AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich reviews AABP activities for 2025 and provides an update on plans for activities for members in 2026.

The AABP dues year has changed from a mid-year dues renewal to a calendar year dues year. If you have not renewed your dues for the 2026 dues year, please go to this link to renew your dues. AABP is funded by members and our major source of revenue is member dues and conference registration fees.

AABP has three silos of activity for members which include continuing education, support of the AABP Foundation and advocacy. Gingrich discusses each silo and what AABP does for members in each one. In 2025, there were 26 RACE-approved CE events both live and recorded for our members which is greatly expanded from one annual conference per year.

In 2026, we will offer even more continuing education with webinars, podcasts and publications but also the Recent Graduate and Annual conferences as well as seminars. Four seminars are planned for 2026 including the Edwin Robertson ET seminar August 3-5 at Virginia Tech; Feedlot Management seminar at Hy-Plains Feedyard in Montezuma, Kan. June 12-13; Advanced Beef Production Medicine seminar at Veterinary Agri-Health Services in Alberta, Canada July 8-10; and Dairy Youngstock Seminar in Ashland, Ohio May 1-2.

AABP will also have our first virtual conference in 2026. The theme of the virtual conference will be Emerging and Evolving Diseases and providing topics on the dairy cow highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak, New World Screwworm, tuberculosis, foot-and-mouth disease, and lumpy skin disease. We will also have presentations on biosecurity for dairy farms in relation to these diseases. This conference will be live sessions over two afternoons. Registration will open in the first quarter of 2026.

Gingrich also discusses the activities of the AABP Foundation which provides externship grants, education grants, scholarships and research grants. We encourage you to support the AABP Foundation to continue these initiatives. In 2025, the AABP Foundation provides $115,000 in externship/education grants, $343,000 in scholarships and $65,000 in research grants. Donate to the AABP Foundation at this link. To view the research projects supported by the AABP Foundation, go to this page and view the published research from these projects here.

AABP also is involved in advocacy for all cattle veterinarians. This activity continues to expand and AABP provides advocacy to protect the VCPR, protect the scope of licensure, maintain access to xylazine and controlled drugs, and input on management of diseases of consequence for cattle veterinarians.

The AABP Board of Directors thanks all of our members for their membership dues, attendance at our CE events, and your work as cattle and mixed animal veterinarians in rural communities. Best wishes to all of our members for a happy and prosperous 2026!