The recent COVID-19 pandemic and economic impacts in the swine industry have changed some of our normal practices in swine health and production. We will be hearing from two of the leading swine veterinarians on how they have adapted and applied technology and data analytics to make swine herd health and production decisions efficiently and effectively in today’s challenging environment.

Joining us as speakers will be:

Dr. Pete Thomas, DVM, MS 
Director of Health Services
Iowa Select Farms

From 2007 – 2012, Pete was a partner at Veterinary Medical Center and ProPig Management in Worthington, Minn., where he specialized in veterinary services for pork producers. From 2012-2016 he served as a staff veterinarian for Smithfield Foods (formerly Murphy Brown LLC). Pete is a member of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians and has served on its program planning committee, budget committee, and pharmaceutical issues committee. He has attended the National Pork Producer Council’s Pork Leadership Institute and is a certificated Pork Quality Assurance Plus advisor through the National Pork Board. Pete graduated from Iowa State University (ISU) in Ames in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science degree in animal science and in 2007 from ISU’s College of Veterinary Medicine with a Masters of Science degree in preventive medicine and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. Pete and his wife, Jill, have three children. The family lives on acreage between Ames and Boone.

Dr. Matt Ackerman, DVM 
Pork Veterinary Solutions

Dr. Matt Ackerman grew up on a small grain and livestock farm around Peoria, IL. He attended the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and graduated with a B.S. in Agricultural Sciences in 1992 and a DVM in 1995.

Ever since graduating, he has worked in private swine consulting practice. In July 2016, he opened his own practice named Pork Veterinary Solutions.

Pork Veterinary Solutions is currently a two-veterinarian practice that over sees the annual production of approximately 1.5 million pigs (about 1% of US production). The emphasis of the practice is on establishing preventative herd health programs and interpreting production and economic records for commercial swine farms.

Kevin Schulz - Moderator
Senior Staff Writer
Farm Progress

SPONSORED BY