The main story in this issue is a report from our "number one" member, Craig Carter, on his recent trip to China on our behalf. I couldn't begin to do the story justice with an introduction, so I won't try.
The "In the News" section this month has a number of links to stories about the animal tracking component of the National Animal Identification System. When informatics and politics mix, the results can get messy. No matter how the politics end up working themselves out, we in veterinary informatics have a huge interest in seeing that the technical solution is workable and in keeping with the information science principles that we try to promote. The U.S. is playing catch up with much of the world on animal identification. We may literally have only one chance to get the technical solution right.
Dr. Michael K. Martin
A Marvelous Glimpse of Chinese Animal Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine and Technology
by
Craig N. Carter, DVM MS PhD Dip. ACVPM
Professor and Section
Chief, Epidemiology
Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center
College
of Agriculture
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
Until I landed at the Beijing airport, it was a lot like any other overseas trip. Thirteen and a half hours in the air from O’Hare airport, cramped seating, quasi-food, and intermittent naps made it all pretty normal. However, Beijing has probably the busiest airport terminal that I have ever experienced. Furthermore, with almost no English-speakers around, you are pretty much on your own. This is something I am sure they will correct before the 2008 Olympics. I made my way over to the Terminal #1 for domestic flights and found the gate for China Southern airlines.
As the only other apparent American on the flight, I boarded the Boeing 737 along with about 150 Chinese nationals. The aircraft was hot and humid but I seemed to be the only one sweating uncomfortably. The flight attendants bowed in perfect synchronization prior to delivering their pre-flight instructions. The attendants appeared to be about 12 years old but I knew they were probably at least 18. One man in a rather nice suit next to me kept complaining, seemingly because one of the attendants kept stowing things on top of his laptop computer in the overhead compartment. After about 90 minutes on the ground, we were airborne to Changchun.
My en route nap was interrupted by a loud bang and a gut-wrenching bump—we had definitely landed. It was raining softly and the night air was cool. I made my way into the terminal and over to the exit along with the throngs of passengers. In the middle of a huge crowd, I saw my name “Craig” waving on a sign over the top. I finally met my host, interpreter and guide, Mr. Weidong XU, Section Chief of the Technological Consultation Service and Team Leader for Veterinary Informatics, Veterinary Research Institute of Jilin Province (VRIJP). We had been corresponding by email for months and it was great to actually meet him in person. I also met my delightful assistant guide, Ms. Jian SUN, Section Chief of Administration for the Institute. We exchanged greetings and I was whisked to a car in the parking lot where a Mr. Xiong-nan JIN, a jolly man of Korean descent, was waiting. He would do much of the driving around the city of Changchun which is located in the “Golden Corn Belt” of China. After about a 20 minute drive, I was checked into the Changke Hotel where I would stay for the next few nights. The accommodations at the Changke were warm, clean and comfortable.
As I laid myself down on the pillow that Friday night, I thought about why I was in China and what adventures I might have during my brief stay. Mr. XU of the Veterinary Research Institute of Jilin Province (VRIJP) approached the Association for Veterinary Informatics (AVI) about bringing a speaker to China to speak on veterinary informatics and other topics and to meet with some industry and university staff. Funds for the trip were to be provided by a grant obtained through the Jilin Province government. The AVI is an association recognized by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and is dedicated to continuing education in veterinary informatics. It is an organization that has historically had some outstanding leadership, not the least of which was the late Dr. Dick Talbot. Dr. Steve Pittenger, then AVI President, sent out a message to a wide range of members announcing the opportunity. I quickly replied and was soon selected. I felt very fortunate to be given the opportunity to represent the AVI on this adventure. I wasn’t sure why I was chosen over so many other highly qualified colleagues but I have to believe that my white hair and my AVI membership number (#1) had something to do with it!
Saturday morning, Mr. XU met me with a big smile for a quick breakfast at the Changke Hotel. Mr. XU is a distinguished Research Fellow with the VRIJP. He studied veterinary medicine at the Jilin Agricultural University and received a Master’s of Agriculture from Jilin University (then called Changchun University of Agriculture & Animal Science--now a part of Jilin University). He has conducted research and has published extensively in the fields of veterinary pathology, parasitology, serology and molecular biology. I was impressed to learn that he came to North America in the nineties and conducted research on Trichomonas foetus and T. suis for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. In addition, because of his strong informatics skills, he served as a visiting scientist at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. There he developed multi-media educational software for undergraduate and graduate students on veterinary subjects. He is now strongly advocating the development and use of electronic health records to help improve agricultural production and livestock health in China, an industry that is undergoing explosive growth. Mr. XU is an astute computer engineer who has developed veterinary software applications that are being used all around China.
Saturday and Sunday was devoted to getting acquainted with Changchun culture, working with Mr. XU on the translations for my lectures, and nursing my jet lag. On Saturday, Mr. XU and I visited Puyi Palace in Changchun. This is the site of the last Emperor of China, Henry Puyi (pronounced POO-YEE) who was a puppet Emperor installed by the Japanese after their invasion of Manchuria (the area where Changchun is located) in 1931. During World War II the Japanese used the area as military industrial base. The Russians finally expelled the Japanese at the end of the war and Puyi abdicated his throne. There is a beautiful memorial in Changchun honoring the Russians for freeing the region from the Japanese and returning it to Chinese control. On Sunday Ms. SUN joined us and we visited the Changchun International Sculpture Park where I marveled at sculptures contributed by artists from over 150 nations. We also walked through parts of Jilin University where I watched young male and female medical students learning how to march in the Chinese Army. This revived many memories of my own early days in the military. For the rest of the afternoon and evening, Mr. XU and I spent several more hours translating and choreographing my lectures.
On Monday morning, I met with all of the scientists at the VRIJP for a cordial roundtable discussion. The VRIJP has a staff of 16 scientists along with a full complement of technicians that conduct research in a wide range of topics. The Director of the Institute is Ye-ping HU, a very distinguished individual and scientist who obviously commands the respect of his colleagues. Much of the current research at the Institute is focused on bacteriology, parasitology, epidemiology, and veterinary informatics. During our meeting, I learned more about the research being conducted at the Institute to include plans for a new laboratory facility. After a long and rich discussion of current research topics, Mr. HU and his colleagues announced that they had made me an Honorary Research Fellow of the Institute and presented me with a certificate, very humbling indeed.
All
the scientists at the Veterinary Research Institute of Jilin
Province
After meeting with the staff, we toured the Institute’s many laboratories. The parasitology lab was memorable as it contained the most extensive and impressive collection of fixed specimens that I have ever seen. We then visited the VRIJP Small Animal Clinic on the main floor of the Institute where I met the veterinarian-in-charge, Dr. Shu SUN. We then looked at two dogs on IV fluids that were experiencing dehydration and high fever. Dr. SUN’s tentative diagnosis was canine distemper virus infection. Her clinic was modestly equipped but she was obviously a very dedicated clinician. Many middle-income Chinese are beginning to acquire pets but high quality small medicine has not yet developed extensively away from the big city centers. I read with great interest in the English-written newspapers about pet hotels, pet saunas and large, well-equipped veterinary hospitals in Beijing.
Dr.
Craig Carter and Dr. Shu SUN, small animal clinician at the
Institute
That same afternoon, a group of us traveled west of Changchun to visit the Haoyue Group, an impressive agricultural company that was established in January of 2000 with the express purpose of cattle and lamb breeding, feeding, slaughter and processing to include a wide variety of meat products, leather and biologicals. All of the facilities are ISO 9000 certified with a HACCP plan in place. I toured a state-of-the-art, slaughter facility that was recently built by a German company that incorporated robotics into the plant. They were slaughtering Charolais, Simmental, and Angus cattle that day. The English-speaking superintendent told me that no animal under 1000 pounds is accepted for slaughter. I was further briefed that there would be over 10 million cattle on feed in Jilin Province by 2007.
Currently, much of the Chinese beef and mutton products are being purchased by Middle-Eastern countries. An agreement has been signed with Italy to market their huge supply of high quality leather products that are processed in a new plant built adjacent to the slaughter facility. My day ended with my VRIJP colleagues at a private banquet in my honor at the Golden Palm restaurant. We shared many laughs, warm exchanges, and jolly toasts of corn spirit and Tsingtao beer, one of my favorite imported beers. It was interesting to learn that the Tsingtao brewers use a German technique to make the beer! That is another piece of history altogether. The food was outstanding but my chop-stick skills still needed a lot of work.
Tuesday morning Mr. JIN and my entourage picked me up at the hotel and we drove south of Changchun to the Jilin Agricultural University. There I met with Dr. Gui-fen CHEN, Deputy Director and Professor of the Information Technology Academy at Jilin Agricultural University along with several faculty members and students. The department consists of sections on computer science and technology, electronics, information management systems, and telecommunications. They are researching applications of artificial intelligence in agriculture with their main project entitled “Digital Agriculture.” I listened to and critiqued presentations by two graduate students on expert systems they have developed as part of their Master’s Degree theses. The first expert system provided decision support to aid in the diagnosis of diseases in corn, part of what is known as China’s Project 863 to excel in agricultural technology. The system takes into consideration age of the plants, symptoms, fertilizers used, insects, and more and is also designed to be an aid to improve production of crops based on the types of fertilizers. The second student presented her expert system that aids in the diagnosis of diseases in chickens and geese. Both systems were very sophisticated to include the use of high resolution images to aid in the diagnostic process.
Our
group from the Institute with Dr. Gui-fen CHEN (third from left),
Professor at Jilin Agricultural University and some graduate
students
Back at VRIJP that afternoon, Mr. XU and I presented lectures on electronic health records and clinical decision support systems. Our many hours of rehearsing paid off and he did an excellent job of translating the material. There were approximately 60 attendees from the VRIJP, the Military Veterinary Institute, the Academy of Military Medical Science of the People’s Liberation Army, the Jilin Provincial Service for Animal Health Supervision and Inspection, the Jilin Entry-Exit Inspection Quarantine Bureau, the Animal Production and Health Administration Bureau of Liaoyuan City and Jilin University.
Dr.
Carter and Mr. XU delivering a lecture to Chinese veterinarians,
scientists and technicians at the Veterinary Research Institute of
Jilin Province, China
The next morning, we delivered two more lectures to a similar group. In addition to my colleagues at VRIJP, the balance of our audience came from the Jilin Provincial Service for Animal Health Supervision and Inspection, the Jilin Entry-Exit Inspection Quarantine Bureau and the Animal Production and Health Administration Bureau of Liaoyuan City. The first lecture was an overview of the OIE, now known also as the World Association for Animal Health. I received special permission from the OIE in Paris to present this material in my role as Secretary-Treasurer of the World Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (WAVLD). Our second and final lecture was entitled, “Veterinary Diagnostic Epidemiology and Near-Real-Time Surveillance: An Overview.” This presentation highlighted some of my current research at the University of Kentucky and generated a number of questions from the audience. Chinese animal health professionals are quite interested in the applications of surveillance toward improving animal health and production. Before and during the lectures, Ms. SUN did a great job of welcoming the guests, taking pictures and making sure that the projector and computer were working. After the lectures, Mr. HU presented me with a beautiful wooden art-piece with inlaid Pandas from the Institute to say thanks for my efforts. I let everyone know that I couldn’t have completed my mission without the expert help of Mr. XU.
Mr.
Weidong XU, Dr. Craig Carter, Institute Director Ye-ping HU and
Ms. Jian SUN
That evening, I joined all my VRIJP colleagues at the Old Mama restaurant for another private banquet in my honor. Once again, the food was outstanding, the conversation was rich and the mood was joyful. My chop stick skills had improved greatly by this time. At the end of the festivities, I had to say so-long to my friends at the VRIJP.
After the banquet, Mr. XU and I walked over to Changchun park where we enjoyed the music of a local band of elderly gentlemen playing the classic music of the area on melodic instruments such as the Erhu, Banhu, Dulcimer, and Lute. Being an amateur musician, I enjoyed this very much. The crowd at the park was smiling, swaying and dancing to this sweet music in the cool night air.
At about 8:00 P.M., we went back to the Institute to pick up our belongings and headed for the train station. At roughly 10:00, we were rolling back to Beijing on a non-stop sleeper-car train. I easily fell into a deep sleep to the clicking of the tracks. When I awoke it was just daylight and we were pulling slowly into the outskirts of the bustling city of Beijing. We spent Thursday touring the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Friday was an all day visit to the Great Wall, a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) clinic, a variety of shops, and a final meal of authentic Peking Duck with Mr. XU at an up-scale Beijing restaurant. Saturday afternoon I was back at the airport to make the long, uneventful journey back to Chicago and on to Lexington.
Mr.
Weidong XU and Dr. Craig Carter climb the Great Wall together
In a little over a week, I learned how sophisticated Chinese animal agriculture and veterinary medicine are, even to the extent of applying the use of expert systems to aid in disease prevention and production for plants and animals. They are becoming awesome competitors in the global market for animal products and are sure to strengthen significantly in the years to come. Mr. XU, Ms. SU, Mr. JIN and their colleagues graciously took care of my every need and taught me so much about Chinese culture and history. We built a friendship that I know will stand the test of time. Truly, our Chinese colleagues share our passion for a better world through sound science in veterinary medicine and agriculture. I will be eternally grateful for the opportunity I had to experience that first hand. Thanks to all of you who made the trip possible!
42 States On Line With National Disease Reporting System
All but eight states are now actively participating in the National Animal Health Reporting System (NAHRS), according to a report presented at a meeting of the Committee on Animal Health Information Systems in Hershey, Pa. this week. The committee is a joint effort of the U.S. Animal Health Association (USAHA) and the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD).
http://www.furl.net/forward.jsp?id=5572222
Animal ID Brings Lively Discussion at USAHA
Industry support for a privately held database was not a common theme at the U.S. Animal Health Association's Livestock Identification Committee this past week. The day-long meeting on Nov. 8, part of the organization's 109th annual meeting, brought a number of discussions on the future of the private animal tracking database. At the end of the day, the committee had passed a resolution that USAHA would recommend that USDA implement the tracking database as outlined in the U.S. Animal Identification Plan. The resolution was then debated and passed again in the membership meeting. Additionally, during the membership meeting, a directive was passed that, essentially, the USAHA president assemble a group of representative stakeholders to meet with the Secretary of Agriculture to discuss solutions for the resolution passed by the USAHA. A resolution for USAHA to help develop the necessary components for a privately held database, via a consortium, was tabled during the committee meeting and not brought back to the floor.
http://www.animalagriculture.org/newsarchives/2005/November2005/NAISmtg.htm
NIAA Survey Suggests Concern for Private Database Among Beef Industry
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The National Institute for Animal Agriculture’s (NIAA) recently conducted survey on the National Animal Identification System has revealed that among respondents that have a primary interest in beef cattle, 52 percent either disagree or strongly disagree with the decision to move to a private animal tracking database. This aligns with the sentiments of all respondents, which disagree or strongly disagree at a rate of 56 percent. Only 28 percent of beef respondents agree with a private database, while 20 percent were unsure or had no opinion.
http://animalagriculture.org/headline/2005NR/NR_2005NAISSurvey_Beef.htm
Cattlemen Need Straight Talk on Animal ID
To keep things fair and balanced, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association has published an editorial addressing many of the issues raised in the news items above.
http://www.beefusa.org/NEWSNCBAEditorialCattlemenNeedStraightTalkonAnimalID24224.aspx
Patients Let RFID Get Under Their Skin
Adoption of RFID for human patient identification is good news for Veterinary Informatics even if you think getting yourself implanted is a little weird. This means that vendors of medical hardware and software are more likely to take the necessary steps to accommodate RFID patient ID. (Most human patient use of RFID involves wrist bands, by the way.)
Some patients get radio frequency identification technology chips implanted in their arm to enable clinicians faster access to their health information. The chips can be scanned--at hospitals that have specialized RFID readers--to access a 16-digit ID number written on the chip that is linked to a patient ID number in a hospital's database. Complete Mobile Health Data article available at: Mobile Health Data
http://mobilehealthdata.com/article.cfm?articleId=1679&banner=b1
EHR Certification Will Be Put to the Test
While evaluation of veterinary EHRs is unlikely to become as formal as it is in human medicine, the process is still worth studying.
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology will test its certification process for electronic health record (EHR) software products in December. The commission plans to begin certifying products in March 2006 and publishing results next June. Complete Government Health IT article available at: Government Health IT
http://www.govhealthit.com/article91311-11-04-05-Web
Epidemiologist / Veterinarian: Texas Animal Health Commission
The Epidemiologist reports to the Deputy Director for Epidemiology, Laboratories, and Support Services, and is responsible for performing risk analyses to support Texas livestock industries or as related to Texas livestock health issues; advising on trends in disease control and eradication efforts; monitoring surveillance methods; conducting epidemiological investigations; determining disease classifications and diagnostic procedures; and, providing assistance to field personnel. The Epidemiologist is subject to travel extensively and to work overtime (overtime compensated on an hour-for-hour basis up to 160 hours maximum accrual of compensatory time).
http://www.tahc.state.tx.us/agency/employment/06-05-Epidemiologist.pdf
Dean: The University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston announces the search for the Dean of the School of Health Information Sciences (SHIS). SHIS is one of six schools of the UT Health Science Center at Houston. The position offers exceptional opportunities for leadership in a comprehensive academic health science center located in the Texas Medical Center.
http://www.shis.uth.tmc.edu/NewsEvent/SHIS%20admin%20post.pdf
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The
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