Episode 6: Fighting Avian Influenza: A Partnership Story

Summary

In this episode of 'We're Engaged', host Dr. Sandra San Miguel discusses the vital partnership between Purdue University's College of Veterinary Medicine and the Indiana State Board of Animal Health. Guests Dr. Kyle Shipman and Dr. Craig Bowen share insights on their roles in managing animal health, particularly in response to highly pathogenic avian influenza. They emphasize the importance of communication, collaboration, and the historical context of their partnership, highlighting recent challenges and successes in safeguarding animal health in Indiana.

Keywords

Purdue University, Veterinary Medicine, Animal Health, Avian Influenza, Diagnostic Laboratory, Partnerships, Indiana State Board of Animal Health, Veterinary Community, Animal Care, Food Safety

Takeaways

• The partnership aims to inspire community engagement in veterinary medicine.
• Highly pathogenic avian influenza poses significant risks to poultry health.
• Timely communication is crucial in managing animal health crises.
• Negative test results are celebrated as they indicate healthy flocks.
• The relationship between Purdue and the Board of Animal Health is unique and effective.
• Recognition from the state government underscores the partnership's success.
• Building strong relationships is essential for effective veterinary practices.
• The diagnostic lab plays a critical role in animal health management.
• Both organizations prioritize the welfare of animals and food safety.
• Continuous improvement and adaptation are key to their collaborative efforts.

Chapters

00:00   Introduction to the Partnership and Its Importance

05:17   Understanding Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI)

12:11   The Response to HPAI: A 72-Hour Overview

15:56   Building Strong Relationships in Veterinary Medicine

20:29   Recognition and Awards for Collaborative Efforts

30:19   Advice for Developing Successful Partnerships

Important Links

The Indiana State Board of Animal Health

The Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory

Transcript

Sandra San Miguel 
Welcome to We're Engaged, the podcast that features Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine's community partnerships. I'm your host, Sandy San Miguel, the associate dean for engagement. If you're new to the podcast, thanks for joining. And if you're a regular, welcome back. We're super excited to share with you all of the wonderful partnerships that Purdue Veterinary Medicine has.

And we hope to inspire you to either join in on our partnerships or start your own. So today we are highlighting our partnership with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health to protect our country against highly pathogenic avian influenza. So welcome. We have some awesome guests. I'm going to let them introduce themselves. 

Craig Bowen (02:40.34)
Kyle, you want to kick it off or you want me to go?

Kyle Shipman (02:42.63)
Sure, I can go. My name is Kyle Shipman. I am our Indiana State veterinarian here at the Board of Animal Health. so the Board of Animal Health is uniquely positioned as we have an 11-member board that represents our industry and veterinary stakeholders from across the state to protect our animals. Our charge given by the General Assembly here in Indiana is the prevention, detection, control, and eradication of infectious, contagious, and communicable diseases.

affecting both the health of animals as well as overseeing the processing and distribution of products derived from animals. So we have that dual focus of animal health and care as well as food safety. So when it comes to our primary mission areas, we generally categorize them as animal health. We then take a look at animal care, food safety is both our dairy inspection program, as well as our meat and poultry inspection program, as well as disaster preparedness. That's twofold. That's also

looking at natural disasters as well as diseases of animals. So that's kind of where the Board of Animal Health is. We have been around for, we're celebrating 135 years this year. And we do, like I said, it's that 11 member board and it's my unique privilege to serve as the chief administrative officer for that board and to oversee the functions of our agency.

Sandra San Miguel (03:54.254)
What?

Sandra San Miguel (04:09.208)
Thank you.

Craig Bowen (04:10.748)
And I'm Craig Bowen. I am the assistant director at the Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. The ADDL, as we commonly go by, is a full-service veterinary diagnostic laboratory with a mission to provide reliable, innovative, and vigilant services to our veterinarians, producers, and regulatory agencies throughout the state of Indiana, but then across the nation as well.

We serve as a member of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, which helps to interconnect our laboratory with other laboratories across the country as we all strive to provide these diagnostic services for the highly pathogenic avian influenza, as is our topic today, as well as many other diseases that we encounter in the veterinary community for our pets, our livestock. But then also it's providing diagnostic services that help to safeguard the humans.

as so many of those diseases that we look for are zoonotic or ones that can pass from the animal to the human. So we serve a unique role in providing diagnostic services for the veterinary hospital here with Purdue University at the College of Veterinary Medicine, as well as veterinarians all across the state of Indiana, working closely with our state regulatory agencies like Dr. Shipman mentioned with the Board of Animal Health here in Indiana.

and additionally with our regulatory federal partners with USDA to that higher level with things across the country as well. So we're here, we have two diagnostic laboratories, the one here in West Lafayette and another down in Dubois, Indiana, part of Dubois County on the Southern Indiana Purdue Agricultural Centers campus that are able to provide all types of veterinary diagnostic services from

an autopsy of a patient, pet, or farm animal that may have died to figure out why they died or what contributed to the illness with that animal, all the way through trying to figure out maybe what's the urinary tract infection or what's causing pneumonia in somebody's sheep or calves or any of those animal species. So we serve everything, large animals, small animal, great and small, as much as we can and

Craig Bowen (06:30.526)
partner with other laboratories or services that we're not able to provide. And we're very fortunate to be here in Indiana and work with Dr. Shipman and his great staff to aid our industry partners, our animal producers in all of their needs and try and keep our flocks and people and other animals healthy as we deal with these outbreak scenarios.

Sandra San Miguel (06:34.99)
that's being here in Indiana and more function in the industry staff to aid our industry partners.

Sandra San Miguel (06:45.23)
.

Sandra San Miguel (06:54.046)
Excellent, thank you. All right. It's been a little busy for the past few months here, hasn't it? Can you take us? I'm just gonna go 72 hours because I don't I don't want to go too far back. Can you share with us? Just give people who might not be familiar with High Path AI just real short bullet points of what that is and then take us through your

Kyle Shipman (07:01.594)
Mm-hmm, it absolutely has.

Craig Bowen (07:02.196)
Yes.

Sandra San Miguel (07:23.47)
72 hours working together.

Kyle Shipman (07:28.526)
Yeah, absolutely happy to do kind of a thumbnail sketch 30,000 foot view. So highly pathogenic avian influenza, typically a respiratory virus we see in birds, primarily spread across the country through wild waterfowl. As of late, we've seen an increased die off of sandhill cranes in the state of Indiana specifically. So it's a virus that can impact wild waterfowl.

But it doesn't have to. So as they're migrating, they can introduce this virus onto the landscape. And we will occasionally then see the introduction of that virus into our poultry flocks across the state. So what does that mean for them? The highly pathogenic part of the name is used because of how it impacts our poultry. So poultry that are introduced to this virus succumb to the virus very rapidly, right?

the mortality rate, the death is pretty high. And so we partner with the diagnostic lab there at Purdue to get very accurate and timely test results so we can take appropriate action on those birds. So these birds get very sick and die very quickly once they have been exposed to this virus.

Craig Bowen (08:39.07)
you

Kyle Shipman (08:46.81)
The past 72 hours have been interesting to say the least. We want to kind of talk through the timeline of what these typically look like. And again, this is a big or a small. We talk about this having recently detected it in two commercial poultry sites as well as a backyard flock. And those responses can be a little divergent, but have many common themes between them. Usually, we'll can start on the hobby flock, if you will. That's a

Craig Bowen (08:50.996)
Yeah.

Sandra San Miguel (08:52.27)
you

Craig Bowen (08:55.572)
you

Kyle Shipman (09:16.386)
an owner that goes out to their birds and says, Hey, something's not right. My birds aren't doing well. and they give us a call. So they can either give our federal partners a call at USDA or our office here, the board of animal health. They give us a call and we walk them through it. Right. There's plenty of flocks that, you know, may have, a cough or sneeze or watery eye or sinuses that could be other things. Right. And we, our team triages those cases.

Sandra San Miguel (09:25.198)
they can either give our federal partners a call at USDA or our office here. The more they will help, give us a call, we walk them through it, right? There's plenty of flocks that may have a cough or sneeze or watery eye or sinuses that could be other things, right? Our team triages those cases.

Kyle Shipman (09:45.23)
We do have a shortage of veterinarians that are able to see poultry backyard flocks and hobby flocks across the state. So we kind of help serve that role to walk them through part of that initial triage, case triage process. If we think it's concerning, we work with our team members across the state to get a diagnostician out there to collect samples and then work to get them up to Purdue so that we can then have those timely results.

Sandra San Miguel (09:47.67)
shortage of veterinarians that are able to see poultry backyard flocks and hobby flocks across the state. So we kind of help serve that role to walk them through part of that initial triage, case triage process. If we think it's concerning.

Sandra San Miguel (10:06.072)
to get a diagnostician out there to collect samples and then work to get them up to Purdue so that we can then have those timely results. So, Craig want to take it from there on what you're all doing with the results? Yeah.

Kyle Shipman (10:15.226)
Craig, you want to take it from there on what you all do once you get those results?

Craig Bowen (10:17.128)
Yeah. Yeah. So this is where we stay very much in communication with Dr. Shipman and his team at the Board of Animal Health to stay abreast of current phone calls, emails, different conversations happening all across the state of concerned poultry owners on the hobby side, but then also some of the commercial poultry companies that are here in the state as well to communicate what's happening, who's got birds that need to be tested.

Sandra San Miguel (10:28.617)
of the parade.

Sandra San Miguel (10:40.95)
as well.

Craig Bowen (10:46.964)
and what's happening. Since we do already have present detections in our state, there are different control areas or zones around those infected premises for which sampling happens on a routine basis. And that regular interval of samples coming in, we're in contact with the Board of Animal Health, as well as those producers to identify when those samples are coming in. Every day we're getting

multiple hundred samples coming in to go through and do the surveillance testing to monitor those areas to make sure that there's no new detections. And if there are new detections, we're identifying those really quickly before they have an opportunity to spread too much. Additionally, that testing is allowing us to ensure that any of those poultry products are safe and do not contain the virus before they're moved on to other areas from one farm to another.

Sandra San Miguel (11:31.83)
that any of those poultry products are safe and do not contain the

Craig Bowen (11:40.654)
or those poultry products are going on to maybe enter the food chain or something along those lines. So we have communication with those folks all day long and all night long, it seems like, getting emails and heads up of samples that are coming in the next morning so we can prepare at the laboratory for how many samples we expect to receive, get everything lined up, receive those samples, get them labeled with stickers that we can use to identify the samples, get those into our computer system.

Sandra San Miguel (11:50.862)
you

Craig Bowen (12:10.174)
those samples go onto the laboratory, they go through the testing procedures and processes. So then when that's finished, results can be analyzed and reports submitted to those producers, as well as the Board of Animal Health for them to document, track everything, issue permits for those movements to happen. And then if we do identify an additional detection of the virus on one of these flocks, then we're in communication with the Board of Animal Health to let them know.

so they can communicate with that producer directly by phone to let them know those results because this is going to have a major impact on their production facility or their farm that they have, and then can discuss what those next steps are going to be. So throughout the day, we've got those communications going on. We aim for that routine stuff to arrive in the morning at the diagnostic lab so we can test them throughout the day. But inadvertently, as it comes to be, there's always

Sandra San Miguel (13:01.24)
day but inadvertently.

Craig Bowen (13:08.5)
a sneezing chicken or a coughing turkey or something that they're not eating as much or drinking as much water as they should be that might indicate there might be something going on that then we need to get some additional samples collected from those flocks, get those to the lab that we have several starts throughout the day to go through and try and provide as timely results as we can to assist the Board of Animal Health, to assist those producers.

Sandra San Miguel (13:17.774)
that might indicate or might be something going on that we need to get some additional...

Craig Bowen (13:37.116)
and to keep the poultry industry able to continue with their businesses, providing this safe, healthy product to our consumers throughout the state and the country.

Kyle Shipman (13:49.284)
think Craig would agree our jobs are lively enough. So we try to prevent surprises as much as possible. So that constant communication between our agency and their organization there is critical so that we can try to do each other a favor and prevent any other undue surprises throughout the day. And I think it's also important to remember just the vast number of tests that are being ran. Most of them are negative, right? Which is awesome.

Sandra San Miguel (13:52.91)
So we try to prevent them.

Craig Bowen (13:56.616)
Yeah.

Kyle Shipman (14:18.04)
We love negative tests, right? It is the non-negative, which is what we call a positive result prior to it being confirmed, that we then take action on. And those are unfortunate circumstances that we work through. So once we receive that non-negative from the lab, our team of veterinarians and animal health specialists are working with that producer to place a quarantine, work through the euthanasia depopulation process of those birds, and then ultimately working through the disposal and getting that

Sandra San Miguel (14:18.85)
right

Sandra San Miguel (14:26.104)
and they're action on, and those are unfortunate.

Sandra San Miguel (14:43.192)
ultimately working through the disposal and getting that producer back into business as soon as we possibly can. And then a safe intermissions for protecting the flock.

Kyle Shipman (14:46.372)
producer back into business as soon as we possibly can and in a safe manner, making sure we're protecting the flock in that local community.

Sandra San Miguel (14:56.11)
So it's been a busy 72 hours.

Kyle Shipman (14:59.95)
Yes.

Craig Bowen (15:00.402)
Yes.

Sandra San Miguel (15:01.12)
And it's been going, that 72 hours has been going on for a long time. How many times have you spoken to each other, both of you, in the past 24 hours?

Kyle Shipman (15:06.234)
It really has.

Kyle Shipman (15:16.442)
you

Craig Bowen (15:16.82)
Oh, well, there's in the last 24 hours, there's been a few communications. So that's where one of Dr. Shipman's colleagues, Dr. Maria Cooper, we'll give her a shout out, who is Kyle, you name Maria's full title.

Kyle Shipman (15:34.008)
Yeah, so she's our avian health division director. So she oversees our avian programs here at the board of animal health and helps coordinate the diagnostics, the permitting during an incident, as well as the initial indemnity paperwork. So the financial piece to this, which ties hand in hand to the money or to the test results rather.

Craig Bowen (15:58.47)
Yep, so to free Dr. Shipman up, because I know he's a very busy individual with all the other things that are going on, having Dr. Cooper focusing directly on poultry, I definitely communicate a lot more with her on an hourly basis sometimes with things that in the last 24 hours, Dr. Cooper and I have probably communicated probably at least 15 if not 20 times during that time period.

And there's many times when I'll make that phone call to Dr. Cooper, especially in the afternoon when results start coming available that she'll answer that phone and it'll be, on, let me tap Dr. Shipman in and tie him in to a three-way phone call and get that process started so that way I can convey the results or the information and update that we have to both of them at the same time. yeah, that agency, we're very fortunate to have.

the Dr. Shipmans and the Dr. Coopers and so many others that are definitely vested in making sure that the information is collected and disseminated and just keeping that open communication with us.

Kyle Shipman (17:06.38)
Yeah, we not so fondly call that the witching hour between about 430 and 630 every day. That's if we're going to get a call from Craig, that's when it happens. So.

Sandra San Miguel (17:13.454)
Yeah, I was gonna ask how many of these communications happen during normal business hours.

Craig Bowen (17:21.62)
Maybe 50 %

Kyle Shipman (17:22.456)
Yeah, some do. Yeah.

Sandra San Miguel (17:27.284)
I a smidge, right?

Craig Bowen (17:28.968)
Yeah, there may or may not be an unwritten kind of protocol that when we make a phone call, if it's a, hey, first name, it's good. it's a Dr. Shipman Dr. Cooper, we know it's business and results or something that is going on. So you may have a little bit of that anxiety when you see that name pop up on the phone of, no, what's this going to be?

Sandra San Miguel (17:41.578)
Hehehehe

Kyle Shipman (17:42.099)
Hehehehehe

Sandra San Miguel (17:46.51)
It's not gonna be good enough.

Craig Bowen (17:57.406)
We can really quickly identify that with a, Kyle or Dr.

Kyle Shipman (18:02.926)
Absolutely.

Sandra San Miguel (18:03.938)
Good. Well, I want to thank you both for everything you do. And I do want to point out that this relationship that is so essential for success in the mission is very unique in our state. And I think we take it for granted here in Indiana that there even is a board of animal health.

Craig Bowen (18:20.308)
Thank

Sandra San Miguel (18:27.412)
in our state and that we do work so closely and have such a great relationship with our veterinary college. I that's pretty special. And I think we all go back pretty far in our careers. So it's not just these relationships don't just happen. And I know that the relationship between Purdue's College of Veterinary Medicine, the diagnostic lab, and

Boa existed well before we came here. We all came here. But can you give us a little bit of history, like to your knowledge? How did that relationship start? And then when did you two first meet?

Craig Bowen (19:01.542)
Mm-hmm.

Kyle Shipman (19:13.678)
Yeah, so I think as far as the relationship, I believe that relationship has been anchored in statute, right? So we are fortunate that with the Board of Animal Health, specifically has, the General Assembly has outlined the relationship and part of the charge of the diagnostic lab here in Indiana to help support our disease prevention, detection, and eradication efforts. So we're kind of inextricably bound. But also when there's great people, it's easy to work with.

Right. So, as far as when Craig and I met, believe, so Dr. Bowen was previously a field veterinarian at the board of animal health when, I was brought on actually as a field veterinarian, at the board of animal health as well. So Dr. Bowen covered the West Lafayette area and I was down in the Evansville area. So that would have our first meeting. So, I think it's been incredibly helpful for Dr. Bowen in his current position, to have the, see the other side of the coin, if you will.

and that response field process and then now having that experience to bring to the diagnostic lab.

Craig Bowen (20:20.722)
Absolutely. So yeah, as Dr. Shipman talked about, so that state statue going back to the early 1900s with the formation of the diagnostic lab and just with our charge to support the Board of Animal Health and Purdue University and then the animal agricultural industries within Indiana has been around and existed. Definitely before us, these relationships and cooperative components existed. But as Dr. Shipman mentioned,

a former employee of the Board of Animal Health. got to live, breathe and eat and do all the things that go along with being a district field veterinarian and was a part of BOAH during the backyard flock incident that we diagnosed for high path AI in 2015. And then also that 2016 commercial turkey incident in southern Indiana. So we that was right after Dr. Shipman started. I think he definitely got

Sandra San Miguel (20:51.875)
Yeah.

Sandra San Miguel (21:16.366)
Yes.

Craig Bowen (21:18.93)
that trial by fire component of thrown in and quickly learned. And I think a lot of people would agree that that was a clear indicator of his performance and commitment during that time frame that kind of foretold what we see today with him now as our next state veterinarian for the state of Indiana that we could definitely see some of those things back then when he was early on in his career with all of that. we

We greatly appreciate his commitment to all of those things and continuing on. yeah, working with Dr. Shipman has been very, I shouldn't be challenged to think of words. I'm trying to think of the right word. Fun. Enjoyable on all of those things. We definitely have plenty of stories that we can probably tell on each other for another time. But it's definitely helped to build that relationship.

Sandra San Miguel (21:48.174)
Thank

Kyle Shipman (21:57.818)
Say something nice, Craig

Kyle Shipman (22:08.218)
Correct.

Craig Bowen (22:14.802)
I think both of us coming from farming backgrounds, having had animals and livestock, I just read the first letter from the state veterinarian that came out in their quarterly issues report that Dr. Shipman authored on everything. So it's great hearing his background story and introduction to the board of animal health with things, but just having that common background in veterinary medicine, 4-H, agriculture, and all those different components.

Sandra San Miguel (22:27.168)
You

Craig Bowen (22:42.024)
being Purdue alumni and everything that way, working together at the Board of Animal Health, having all those experiences at BOAH for me, I saw the good relationship that BOAH and the ADDL had, me coming on board, I think I was able to help expand on some of those things and introduce and smooth over, expand on some of those connections that exist that I think we have a very, very strong relationship.

It's easy. There's not that intimidation of I've got to call the feds or the regulatory or the state people or anything that way. It's open communication between us at all times, day or night, as it happens to be quite commonly with things that it's easy to reach out and say, hey, I've got this need or hey, I need this change. We need to work on this. Can we plan for this next thing that's going to be happening?

Sandra San Miguel (23:21.687)
It's just it.

Craig Bowen (23:36.274)
What is your need? What's our need? How can we make this work best for both sides to get that end result that's necessary? So yeah, it works really well.

Sandra San Miguel (23:47.882)
I love it because a state statute can say you have to work together, but that doesn't make a relationship successful. And you have made it successful. So I love that. And a model for other states. Wasn't there an award a few years ago here? What was that award? Tell us about that.

Kyle Shipman (24:05.69)
Yeah. Yeah. So one of the awards we have received both from at the time, Governor Pence, you know, directly related to our response and our response efforts to highly pathogenic AIDEN influenza. He recognized those efforts in our collaborations across the state. And so I think that's

That's something that we definitely don't take lightly. We are uniquely structured, right? We are a true board of animal health, right? That it's a politically balanced so we can be anchored in science, right? And so we want to use our science and our experience to drive policy, work with our colleagues across state government as well as our industries that we serve to deliver what the constituents are.

needing and asking for, right? We're very constituent driven in everything we do. And we want to have the folks in the field that can ground truth and understand what those needs are. So we don't live in a vacuum. And we understand kind of that next step or those next few steps. So we can take that into consideration as we are always evaluating the direction we're going in to make sure we're truly serving the needs of our constituents.

Sandra San Miguel (25:26.691)
beautifully said. I mean, that's what engagement is, right? Mutually beneficial reciprocal relationships and you have that. So are you ready for the lightning round? I didn't share these questions with you so you're not prepped.

Kyle Shipman (25:38.596)
Sure!

Craig Bowen (25:38.861)
my.

Sandra San Miguel (25:45.038)
For the first one, I'm gonna ask the question and the first person to answer gets to go first. I don't want you to think about it. I just want you to shout it out. It's gonna be a ready, set, go. One word to describe your partnership.

Craig Bowen (25:51.828)
wow.

Kyle Shipman (26:01.124)
Fun.

Craig Bowen (26:04.18)
I'm strong.

Sandra San Miguel (26:05.934)
All right. I love it. What's been the best part of the partnership of working together?

Craig Bowen (26:17.588)
Is this still a one word answer or is this?

Sandra San Miguel (26:19.297)
No, you can't.

Kyle Shipman (26:20.154)
You're like, aw man.

Sandra San Miguel (26:25.71)
Short answer! Short answer! I'm not editing this out.

Craig Bowen (26:26.957)
I think that's gonna be more. Okay, can you read the kids' forfeits?

Kyle Shipman (26:38.82)
You

Sandra San Miguel (26:38.922)
What's the best part of the partnership so far?

Craig Bowen (26:43.824)
part.

Sandra San Miguel (26:45.484)
the most memorable moment.

Kyle Shipman (26:47.956)
well that's dangerous. I think it's our ability that or the yeah the ability to be frank and honest with each other right I mean I think if we're you don't I don't feel like we either organization has to have a facade and we can truly be our own selves working with each other.

Craig Bowen (26:48.852)
Oh, that's a dead...

Craig Bowen (27:05.896)
Yeah, there's that mutual respect that exists for both sides of things and that understanding of what we're trying to accomplish and supporting that common goal and mission. Board of Amable Health has that similar kind of component that goes along there. So while we have separate work and things that way, it definitely pulls us both together. And then definitely the people are personable and they're just like you mentioned earlier, just because the statute says we have to work together.

It's easy to work with each other on things and there's not any struggles. We don't get long well.

Kyle Shipman (27:45.486)
Yeah, I think part of both of our organizations culture, right, is remembering who we work for, right? And we work for those constituents in Indiana. And when we remember who we work for, it's pretty easy to drive towards that similar goal.

Sandra San Miguel (27:52.866)
Yes.

Sandra San Miguel (28:01.61)
Excellent. I love it. So what surprised you most about working together?

Craig Bowen (28:10.162)
surprised me both.

Kyle Shipman (28:15.834)
that sometimes accessioning is the harder part than running the test itself. Or more labor intensive, right? I I think that's a real thing. Like the paperwork pieces can, and that's similar for us at BOAH, right? Like the paperwork pieces can be just as hard as doing the thing, whatever the thing is.

Craig Bowen (28:22.612)
Yeah

Craig Bowen (28:33.48)
Very much so, yeah. That's what the things that we take for granted are sometimes the most important and strenuous components that go along with it. Some of the hands-on things that need to happen by all means definitely vital to the situation and necessary. The bottlenecks of some of the most important components happen before we get to that point or after that point. So.

In the lab world, we call that our pre-analytical and our post-analytical sides of things. as Kyle was mentioning, that accessioning part. So that's our intake process. So when these samples come to us, have to... We ask that they're clean, disinfected tubes when they're coming to us and labeled with all the information. But we also kind of have to assume that maybe they weren't handled exactly the way that we have asked for them. So we kind of have to treat them all as dirty.

So we wipe down with disinfectants and clean all the tubes, make sure that we have them labeled the way that we need to to get them to the lab. And then we have to enter all this data that goes along with it, which if this one of your next questions is what's one of the exciting things about the future of our relationship and things that way. Alright, the lab we are working on getting a new laboratory information management system, which is a long way to say a limbs or the computer backbone.

that handles all of the data, the driven information that goes along with it, that we are in the final steps, hopefully hours, of being able to announce that we have a signed contract for this. And this system will allow for us to automate and go online and go paperless or paper light in so many ways that's just going to streamline this process that holds things up.

It benefits us greatly at the lab, then our ability to communicate with the Board of Animal Health is going to improve even more. We make it work with what we've got right now, but it's just going to become easier, faster, and just be a better experience for all of us.

Sandra San Miguel (30:40.706)
You're stealing my thunder, Craig. Cause that was my next question. I'm gonna ask it anyway so Kyle has a chance to answer. As a result of your partnership, how have you grown together? How have you changed?

Craig Bowen (30:42.684)
White Oaks.

Kyle Shipman (30:43.079)
You

Craig Bowen (30:51.102)
Yeah.

Kyle Shipman (30:51.546)
Sure.

Kyle Shipman (30:59.576)
Yeah, yeah, I think it's I think we're constantly asking ourselves what are we going to do with what we know, right? And the diagnostic lab and Craig's team there is really good at letting us know what they can do and what they can't do or what does the result mean. Ultimately, we are beholden to the test result, right? So we have to have full confidence in that test result. We absolutely have that with our.

diagnostic lab here in Indiana. And I think that's important to have. It's not universal across the country. And knowing what that test result can do, as well as the other capabilities the lab has. So we might get a peculiar test result and I go, Hey Craig, what else you got? Right? Like what can we figure out? You know, what does this mean? And what, you know, what different paths or tools would your diagnosticians and pathologists kind of recommend?

to help us better understand what's going on and pair that with the clinical picture.

Sandra San Miguel (32:04.224)
love it. Did you have anything to add Craig? Or do you want the next one?

Craig Bowen (32:08.908)
I would say like, if we go even beyond just the work side of it, it's also knowing Dr. Shipman, Dr. Cooper, Dr. Werling Dr. Justice, Dr. Miller, all I can just keep naming all the different ones at BOAH. And then also Dr. Hendrix here at our lab, Dr. Wilkes, our technical staff, all of these folks, being able to build those relationships and know we're all in this together. Right now.

We talked about these 72 hours and how much is going on. It's very trying times. It's taxing on us. We can lean on each other. We can reach out and do some check-ins on people. And this is a shout out to somebody that may watch or listen to this later on and they know who they are. One of the best words of advice that we ever got in vet school actually came from Dr. San Miguel that says that you've got to take care of yourself.

If you don't take care of yourself, you're not going to be able to take care of your patient or you're not going to be able to do your work that you need to do. And we can check in on each other and make sure things are going well and that everybody's in good space, doing what they need to, taking care of themselves because we're working long hours. It's very stressful work that we're doing right now. The impact of what these non-negative or positive results have.

It means a lot to these producers, to their families, to their livelihoods for what's happening. When Dr. Shipman and his crew have to inform these people that they unfortunately have to depopulate their flock of birds, this isn't a light decision. It's not an easy one. It's prescribed as far as this is what happens when this comes about with those results. But these are folks that understand the significance of that. It's not taken lightly.

It's going to wear on those individuals, those producers, as it does on us too. This is not something that we want to see happen to them. So our organizations are there to support them as much as we can through that process. Us on the diagnostic needs for as much as we can to help them keep the other sides of their businesses going. Dr. Shipman and his crew from the regulatory side helping with all the processes and things that way. But you just become attached to all of these people and become first name bases and

Craig Bowen (34:28.34)
At the lab, we know some of the larger names for some of the people in the organization, but then when we see samples every day from the same people, we start to learn and know who these people are a bit too. And then when we see, as we've seen this ongoingness with this current incident, we recognize the name, but it's just like, no, this one went positive today. We've been testing samples for them for weeks and they've been able to

Sandra San Miguel (34:54.144)
and having been able to.

Craig Bowen (34:57.204)
keep the virus out of their flock. And then now it's just like, know what this means for that producer and then for their birds. yeah, no, I think that growth has just been to be able to know each other, rely on each other and expect so much from it's great to have that support system.

Sandra San Miguel (35:07.938)
Yeah.

Kyle Shipman (35:16.214)
And really having each other's back at the end of day, right? I think we have that much respect and trust in what each other's organizations are doing. Like we'll have we have each other's back.

Sandra San Miguel (35:28.054)
Wow, thank you for sharing that. Yeah, they're not just samples. So much behind. So from each of you, one piece of advice for people in other states who might not have such a great relationship or might not even have a partnership on developing a partnership like we have.

Craig Bowen (35:51.762)
Yeah, that's a great question and something that I know is a model or it should be a model for other states, I feel like. And I know my time working at the Board of Animal Health and then even my time here at the diagnostic lab interacting with other state veterinary officials from other states or diagnostic individuals. People are aware of the relationships in Indiana. They know the Board of Animal Health.

The Board of Animal Health in Indiana is kind of held up high as kind of the one to achieve to be like and how things are run, how things work, and it's through great leadership like Dr. Shipman and his predecessor Dr. Marsh that have instilled and have worked with all of these great individuals, have this amazing veterinary team that their organization that they can rely on, as well as all that support staff, as well as

the legislative and stakeholders and the barnyard or the different ag industries that are so supportive of all of that have allowed them to achieve all of these goals and to reach that high level. But I think what it goes back to on your question though is push for those relationships, reach out, meet those people, go to the meetings, call them up, email them, try and make those connections that are there.

because what I think they'll find out as we've covered today, there's so much overlap between what we're going through, what they're going through. Our frustrations are probably the same frustrations they're having. Can we improve those things? Can we improve those workflows? Being able to rely on each other that all of those just communications just need opened up and do whatever you can to push for establishing those relationships because it definitely makes it a lot easier.

Sandra San Miguel (37:44.238)
you

Craig Bowen (37:49.62)
knowing that it's not an area of animosity or a fear of like, no, I've got to call the state office. It's, I mean, I want to tell Kyle what I've got to tell him because I know what it's be, but it's not like it's Dr. Shipman can't, yeah.

Kyle Shipman (38:00.89)
You

Kyle Shipman (38:07.098)
And I think to that same point, I think those relationships are incredibly important. think a common sense approach is also incredibly helpful to bring to the table. And with that, would, know, one of our successes, right, and this has gone long before me, is hiring great people with great hearts and great minds. And we'll figure the rest out, right? So once you get those great people on your team, fiercely protect that culture.

Right? That's, you know, that's one thing we fiercely protect here at the board of animal health is our culture and the folks that work for us. and so that understanding and bringing that great team to, to the table is no easy feat. but it is built on relationships. is built on, customer service and constituent services. It is built on common sense approaches that are based in experience in science.

Sandra San Miguel (39:03.384)
Most definitely an excellent advice. Well, I wanna thank you again for everything you are doing. And thanks for being on the show. It's an outstanding episode. I think it's been nice getting together too with you and being able to talk again.

Kyle Shipman (39:19.479)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Thanks for having us.

Craig Bowen (39:23.592)
Yeah, I appreciate it.

Sandra San Miguel (39:25.506)
Well, that's a wrap. If you like this episode, please subscribe, rate and share it with your friends. And remember, together we can change the world. So use your powers for good.