Vertical Transmission

Happy New Year and welcome to the first issue of Microbiology Australia for 2013, the first with our new publishing partner, CSIRO Publishing. I would like to take this opportunity to express the Society’s warmest thanks to Cambridge Publishing for their many years of excellent service. The transition has been a smooth one and we are genuinely excited about the new online format that has already lead to significant improvements in both accessibility and flexibility. This flexibility will allow us to more easily respond to reader suggestions – please get in touch with us if you have any suggestions for additional content or changes to the format (admin@theasm.com.au), as well as provide us with an extra avenue for more effective dissemination of information about Society and member activities. Many of you will also be pleased to hear that we have re-introduced a printed version of the journal, which will be winging its way to you each quarter. All members will receive this printed version of the journal unless you have chosen the option not to receive a hard copy when you completed your most recent yearly subscription. You can access and select this option at any time by logging in to your member profile area on the ASM home page. In consultation with all of our members, we look forward to bringing you further improvements and developments to the journal over coming issues.

Our thanks to Mary Barton, the guest editor for this edition of MA, who has put together an excellent series of highly informative In Focus and Under the Microscope contributions under the banner of Veterinary Microbiology. From the impact on global food security of the cross-country spread of animal diseases to the incidence of exotic bacterial pathogens in aquatic animals, the broad array of issues covered in this issue signals considerable activity in this field in Australia.

Since the last Vertical Transmission, the Society has appointed Peter Traynor as Chair of the Visiting Speakers Program – welcome on board Peter. Peter has already brought considerable organisational and coordination skills to the position and is actively working with State branches, Divisional Chairs and NSAC to build the 2013 program. If you have any suggestions for speakers who could be supported through the VSP scheme please contact Peter directly (check the ASM website) or via the national office.

The annual meeting, to be held this year in Adelaide from 7–10 July, is fast approaching – where have the first two months of the year gone! The invited international and national speakers are all in place and the tentative Program is now available for viewing at the meeting website (http://asmmeeting.theasm.org.au/). This exceptional group of speakers that the Program Committee has put together ensures that we will have a very exciting series of talks by leaders in their respective fields. While there are a plethora of smaller, specialist meetings now in play across Australia every year, the annual ASM meeting still offers the only opportunity to immerse yourself in cutting-edge science that covers the broad, cross-disciplinary field of microbiology. So set aside these three days for this important networking opportunity for all microbiologists! Early-bird registrations and abstract submissions (for oral presentation consideration) are due on the 5 April.

See you all in Adelaide in July!