Important Notes:
Hotel rooms are available under the WEHA block until March 12th. Contact the hotel at (715) 830-9889 to reserve your room.
All WEHA members are invited to attend the WEHA Board meeting on April 11, 2016 at The Holiday Inn in the Milan Boardroom at 5:00 pm.
For attendees coming the night before the conference, plan to network with colleagues at Buffalo Wild Wings located at 4612 Keystone Crossing, Eau Claire, WI 54701 715-858-9453. Networking will start at 7:00 (immediately following the WEHA Board meeting).
Attendees must sign in at the registration desk to obtain a name badge prior to entering the breakfast buffet. Free breakfast buffet will NOT be available if the attendee does not have their WEHA nametag.
Use the hotel front entrance for breakfast. The staff will be checking nametags at that entrance only. DO NOT USE THE RESTAURANT ENTRANCE.
Attention Students: Get the most out of the conference by participating in the Student Mentorship Program. For more information, contact WEHA at the contact information listed above.
Registration Fee
Members $100
Non-members $120
Students $36
Your registration fee includes: -All educational sessions and conference materials -Breakfast buffet and plated lunch on Tuesday -Refreshment afternoon break on Tuesday -A chance to win door prizes throughout the conference. All registrants will be automatically entered. Must be present to win.
Farm to Fork -
Educate, Don't Contaminate
Come join us for the 2016 WEHA Spring Conference at The Holiday Inn in Eau Claire, WI on April 12, 2016.
Agenda:
7:00 - 8:15 Breakfast and Registration
8:15 - 8:30 Welcome and Opening Remarks
8:30 - 9:45 Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations Concerns
9:45 - 10:00 Break
10:00 - 11:00 On Farm Food Safety: What Role Can Environmental Health Play?
11:00 - 11:30 Exhibitors and Poster Session
11:30 - 12:40 Awards Lunch Banquet
12:40 - 1:40 Critter Ordinances (Urban Chicken Keeping and Beekeeping)
1:45 - 2:45 Emerging Issues
2:45 - 3:00 Break
3:00 - 3:50 Food Safety: Collaborative Intervention at a Community Garden
3:50 Conclude and Door Prizes
Topic Descriptions:
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations Concerns: The Bayfield County Large-Scale Livestock Study Committee responds to community concerns about concentrated animal feeding operations. Presented by Jason Fischbach, UW-Extension Agricultrual Agent for Ashland and Bayfield Counties and facilitated by Robert Thiboldeaux, PhD, Senior Toxicologist for WI DHS Bureau of Envrionmental and Occupational Health.
On Farm Food Safety: What Role Can Environmental Health Play?: Through Farm to School, Farm to Hospital, and other similar programs, institutions are increasingly sourcing food such as fresh fruits and vegetables directly from our local farms. Participation in safe food handling programs such as the USDA GAP (Good Agricultrual Practices) remain voluntary and sometimes cost-prohibitive for participating farms; yet handling food safely on the farm is essential for the prevention of foodborne disease. Learn how Winnebago County Environmental Health and Farm to School have teamed up to create an innovative way to help growers implement safe food handling practices to reduce the risk of an outbreak. Presented by Sarah Elliott, Local Food Economic Development Consultant and WI Farm to School Program Manager for WI DATCP at Winnebago County Health Department; Sarah Wright, RN, MBA, Public Health Nurse at Winnebago County Health Department and Samantha VanDuinen, Environmental Health Specialist at Winnebago County Health Department.
Exhibitor and Poster Session: Visit our exhibitors and student research posters in the adjoining room while the hotel prepares the conference room for lunch.
Critter Ordinances: Matt Tucker, Zoning Administrator at the City of Madison presents Our Decade with Backyard Birds, Madison's Experiment with Urban Chicken Keeping. In 2004, the City of Madison addressed the illegal/underground activity of private chicken-keeping at residences by adopting an ordinance that permits backyard chicken keeping. This presentation will cover the details of the ordinance, the process for adoption of the ordinance, its implementation and enhancement through time, lessons learned, and the City enforcement experience over the past decade. Tim Mirkes, RS, Environmental Supervisor at Appleton Health Department presents Beekeeping in Urban Settings-Appleton Edition. Beekeeping in urban areas is a growing trend in the United States. This presentation will address the process of permitting beekeeping in the City of Appleton.
Emerging Issues - Close Encounters of the Microbial Kind: Working and recreating outdoors can expose Wisconsinites to unique disease-causing agents through biting insects, inhalation, and physical contact. We will review the signs, symptoms and spread of infectious diseases such as Blastomycosis, Lyme Disease, West Nile Virus and Tularemia. Updates for travel-related arboviral diseases will also be included. The focus of the seminar will be on equipping the participants with the knowledge and awareness to assess risk of disease exposure and infection and to prevent illness. Presented by Suzanne Gibbons-Burgener, DVM, PhD Infectious Diseases Epidemiologist at the Wisconsin Division of Public Health.
Food Safety Starts in the Fields: A Collaborative Intervention at the Community Gardens: What happens when you get an anonymous complaint that a septage hauler is improperly dumping human waste? On top of that, the initial investigation notes that it was dumped in a way that impacts the adjacent community garden. Which, by the way, is used to grow food for home use and sale at the farmer's market. Human health hazard complaint investigations never seem to be straightforward. This presentation will highlight what one local health department did to build multi-agency support around this exact situation and move from complaint to compliance. Presented by KT Gallagher, REHS, Environmental Health Supervisor at Eau Claire City-County Health Department and Kelley Jacobs, Land Conservation Manager at Eau Claire County.