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Off to Deutschland

Cindy Zimmerman

While Laura is heading back from Chicagoland, I am heading off to Deutschland – Germany, that is. Just getting in the mood. I mean, who calls it Deutschland anyway, except the people who live there? The trip is a ag media tour of BASF with about six other American ag journalists. We will be flying in to Frankfort and visiting …

Agribusiness, Animal Health, Audio, BASF

ID/INFO Expo ’07

Cindy Zimmerman

Traceability is the main theme at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture ID/INFO EXPO in Kansas City this year and the recent outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in the UK has made it very timely. One of the most interesting presentations was by Ray Brown, a dairy producer from Cheshire, England. Ray spoke on the impact of FMD …

Animal Health, Audio, Livestock

The Worm Farmer

Chuck Zimmerman

I have never met someone who grows worms for a living but that’s what Dr. Patrick Meeus is doing for Pfizer Animal Health. He’s a parasitologist and specializes in worm research. So at the Pfizer VMRD facility he works on the development of de-wormers. They call his part of the facility the “Worm Farm.” You can hear him tell how …

Animal Health, Audio

Wait to Re-Treat Cattle For BRD

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. Merlyn Lucas is Associate Director, Pharmaceutical Clinical Development, VMRD for Pfizer Animal Health. At the recent Pfizer media event he spoke to us about some of his research that focused on single-dose therapy, specifically on Excede and Draxxin. These products are used to treat cattle for bovine respiratory disease. He says that producers are starting to learn that these …

Animal Health, Audio

Sesitivity Surveillance By Pfizer Animal Health

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. Jeff Watts is the associate research fellow, head, Laboratory Sciences, Microbiology Support Laboratory at the Veterinary Medicine Research and Development facility for Pfizer Animal Health. That’s a long title and he’s in charge of some pretty serious research. At the recent media event held at the VMRD he spoke about, “antimicrobial susceptibility testing of BRD pathogens.” Wow. You may …

Animal Health, Audio

Pfizer’s Looking For the 3 Millionth

Chuck Zimmerman

Last week Pfizer made two announcements involving their SelectVAC preconditioning program. Although he wasn’t at the media event I attended, Cindy got to interview Pierre Bertrand, Pfizer, Senior Marketing Manager for Bios and SelectVAC by phone. He talks about the fact that Superior Livestock Auction has chosen SelectVAC as the preferred health program for calves sold through their auction and …

Animal Health, Audio

Pfizer VMRD Leader

Chuck Zimmerman

The head of Pfizer Animal Health’s Veterinary Medicine Research and Development facility (called the Farm) is Dr. Cathy Knupp. She was on our program at their media event titled “Delivering Solutions Through Research and Innovation.” I’m really learning a lot attending these type of R&D programs! Dr. Knupp supervises global research and development activities for the company. Sounds like a …

Animal Health, Audio

Pfizer Suggest Paradigm Shift

Chuck Zimmerman

One of the Pfizer Animal Health specialists we met this week at their media event in Kalamazoo was Dr. Gordon Brumbaugh. He’s an anti-infective specialist in their Cattle-Specialty Veterinary Operations. The theme of his talk was a “Paradigm Shift.” Basically he wants to challenge producers to think in new ways now that there are products on the market that work …

Animal Health, Audio

Pfizer Animal Health’s R&D Investment

Chuck Zimmerman

The executive director for Pfizer Animal Health’s Global Clinical Development is Dr. Bill Baker. He’s responsible for managing the staff and budgets for this group of 120 individuals. At the media event this week he gave us an overview of Pfizer’s Veterinary Medicine Research and Development which is the research organization that has 700 staff in total. He says that …

Animal Health, Audio

Getting The BRD Scoop At Pfizer

Chuck Zimmerman

Here’s the guy who really showed us the way when it comes to BRD in cattle today at the Pfizer Animal Health VMRD facilities. He’s Dr. Dan Scruggs and his topic was the whole BRD complex. I know more about diseases I couldn’t pronounce before today than I’ve got time to write about tonight. Let’s just say there are a …

Animal Health, Audio