From Oct. 20 to Nov 15, the Division of Animal Systems within the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food & Agriculture’s (NIFA), in conjunction with the Agricultural Research Services’ (ARS) Animal Health program, will host a series of webinar events to identify, discuss and prioritize the most pressing animal health research needs of its stakeholders.

Each webinar will focus on a different animal industry or crosscutting topics as follows:

* Aquaculture;

* Goats;

* Specialty farm species;

* Beef;

* Poultry — layers/breeders;

* Swine;

* Dairy;

* Poultry — broilers/meat;

* Crosscutting — animal well-being;

* Equine;

* Sheep, and

* Crosscutting — microbiome.

To register, visit the Animal Health Stakeholder Webinar Series webpage, and click on the topic or webinar of interest. Space is limited, so NIFA and ARS are encouraging group viewing to afford greater participation without exceeding phone line and internet connectivity limits.

To make efficient use of the webinar time, the agencies ask that, by Sept. 30, participants email their perspective on what comprises the top five animal health issues for that particular topic of interest. This will help focus the conversation for the rest of the webinar, during which the agencies will talk in depth about each topic. Send pre-webinar input to [email protected], and place the webinar title (as written above) in the subject line. Only the first 500 characters will be reviewed. Anything longer than 500 characters or arriving later than Sept. 30 may not be incorporated into the webinar discussion but will be reviewed and incorporated in the final report.

Topics addressed at the last USDA animal health stakeholder workshop in 2010 and the top diseases of interest for commodity groups based on the 2015 ARS survey can be found on the NIFA website. This historical information is provided to help stimulate thoughts.