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There's been tumbleweed blowing around the Animal Pharm desk for much of last week. Our man in the US – Richard Daub – has taken a well-earned Thanksgiving break, Max has gone to Texas like a character in a Country and Western song, and I've been picking up my satchel and heading off to some training courses.

Talking of training courses, we've all been getting our heads down and finding out about Web 2.0 and what we can do with it. Yes, you might find it difficult to believe but Informa is entering the digital age at last, and you our readers can expect a sea change in the way we can provide you with information.

While a lot of these exciting new ideas are still marked with one of those big red CONFIDENTIAL stamps, I hope I'm not being indiscreet if I tell you that we'll be seriously expanding out offering over the next few months. As always, your opinions are at the heart of our planning process, so if there's anything that gets your goat (or that you think's a great idea) please please please put pen to paper and let me know at the usual address – ben.deighton@informa.com.

Also at long last we've got our new deputy editor starting on Monday – Sita Shah. She's come over from our big sister publication Scrip, so Sita's well versed in human health, and she'll be concentrating on getting her head round the way we work in animal health over the next couple of weeks.

And finally welcome to these inaugural posts of the Animal Pharm editor's blog. I'll be using this space to give you the low-down on what's happening here at the Animal Pharm newsroom, and you'll also get an early pointer to any big stories we're working on down here on the Pharm.

The big news last week was Pfizer Animal Health's announcement that it will purchase poultry biotech Embrex for approximately $155m. The deal will bring Pfizer back into the poultry business. The company also officially launched its Porphyromonas Denticanis-Gulae-Salivosa Bacterin vaccine, which aids in preventing canine periodontitis.

The International Federation of Animal Health (IFAH) also made a big announcement last week, stating that Novartis Animal Health chief executive George Gunn has been elected president of the board, succeeding Pedro Lichtinger. The two year term begins this month.

In other product news, Virbac Animal Health has announced that it will launch its new IVERHART MAX "broad spectrum" canine heartworm anthelmintic in the US during the first week of December… IDEXX Laboratories launched its new "IDEXX Learning Center" website (www.idexxlearningcenter.com), which provides instant access to on-demand training courses, web seminars, certification programs, and event registration… The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently granted full marketing and distribution approval to Synbiotics for its Flu Detect avian influenza (AIV) test strip kits… US scientists at Mississippi State University (MSU) are testing Schering-Plough Animal Health (SPAH)-manufactured Aquaflor (florfenicol) for the treatment of columnaris in farm-raised channel catfish.