A press release just in from the Minnesota Board of Animal Health announces the appointment of Dr. Marion Garcia as Executive Director. The state agency has the mission to "protect the health of the state’s domestic animals through education and cooperation with veterinarians, producers, owners and communities."
Dr. Marion Garcia's experience is in the poultry industry, as well as an impressive career in the U.S. Army Reserve.
"Domestic animals" include livestock and poultry but also commercial pet as covered the Board's response to Chronic Wasting Disease, which afflicts all cervidae, whether farmed or wild; the Board has concurrent authority with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources over farmed cervidae. We mostly recently reported on CWD in Minnesota in On Facebook, operator of CWD doomed Winona County deer farm wears Miller Scrap hat and MN Board of Animal Health: CWD confirmed in quarantined Winona County captive deer herd.
The press release:
Board appoints new executive director:
The six-member Minnesota Board of Animal Health has named Dr. Marion Garcia as its new executive director and state veterinarian. The Board selected Dr. Garcia to succeed Dr. Beth Thompson, who left the agency in May of this year and served the agency since 2016. Dr. Linda Glaser served in the interim while the Board went through the hiring process. Dr. Garcia will officially start at the end of September.
Dr. Garcia has been a livestock veterinarian in the poultry industry for more than 20 years. She worked for a commercial poultry operation in veterinary school and continued in the industry until accepting her new position with the Board. Prior to veterinary school, she served as a member of the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserve until retiring from service in 2020. Dr. Garcia also holds a Master of Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology and is board certified by the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. She is active in the National Poultry Improvement Plan and was recently elected to represent the Midwest at the national meeting.
“I’m excited to be joining the team at the Board of Animal Health. I have practiced in Minnesota for several years and have a high respect for the state’s producers and industry,” said State Veterinarian and Executive Director, Dr. Marion Garcia. “I look forward to working with the talented staff at the Board, our partner agencies at the State of Minnesota, and serving the people of this great state.”
Dr. Garcia is the tenth executive director to hold the position in the Board’s 119-year history. Executive directors are appointed annually by the Board members unless a vacancy occurs, and the position needs to be filled mid-term. For details about other news and events at the Board of Animal Health, visit www.bah.state.mn.us.
Dr. Garcia's LinkedIn profile names her last employer in the poultry industry, Hybrid Turkeys, a Canadian company which operates a hatchery in Beresford, South Dakota. Though dated, a 2018 Atlantic article, Moneyball for Turkeys, illustrates the scope of the operation.
The Hybrid website published Biosecurity and Health: A Conversation with Dr. Marion Garcia, in 2021. :
Dr. Marion Garcia is the lead for Hybrid customer veterinary support in the USA and has a wealth of experience in the turkey industry. This Q&A explores some key takeaways for growers looking to develop their farm’s biosecurity program and learn more about the connection between biosecurity and health.
What areas of biosecurity do you see are most often overlooked?
To put a slightly different spin on the answer, I would say the one area that’s looked at too much is people movement. I think we're pretty good at tracking people, asking people to shower and change clothes and understand clean and dirty zones. We're very good at all of that, but we tend to forget about the rodents who find a way into the barns. Wild birds love to nest underneath the eaves. Insects can invade and get into the feed. If and when birds, rodents, and insects get in, they can infect our birds.
I think that we, as an industry, are focused primarily on people and then on equipment as a close second. After that, we forget about the other pathogen carriers that are part of biosecurity best practices. If you look at the risk factor of someone bringing a cell phone into the barn versus a gap where a rodent can get in, #2 is a much bigger risk than #1. So, we need to remember that biosecurity is about a whole system, rather than just tracking people and their movements.
How can turkey growers better safeguard their farm? What are the areas to look at?
A great place to start is to set aside once a week where growers walk around the outside of their barns and take a critical look. Ask yourself, “Where are my gaps? Where could something get in? Is that a hole in the curtain? Or are those weeds too close to the barn? Let’s take a look under the rafters.” Just start doing this once a week and you will have a much better understanding of your gaps. Once you know where the weak areas are, you can create a plan to make improvements.
What's the connection between biosecurity and health of the flock?
It’s all about population health. When one child goes to school with a cold, likely there will be transmission and the rest of the class can get sick. Another part of biosecurity connected to health is that a little bit of preventative maintenance can go a long way. You can wait until there are obvious health issues in the barn that need to be fixed, but this is a more reactive approach. Strong biosecurity programs with attention to detail save us from having to fix things that are already broken. When you bring your car in for an oil change and tire rotation, these are regularly scheduled appointments that are important to avoiding breakdowns and long-term issues. Biosecurity is much like this kind of regular, preventative maintenance for overall better health. . . .
A turkey vet? The Minnesota Turkey Association's website notes: "Minnesota is the number one producer of turkeys in the nation and is home to 600 turkey farms around the state." In the spring of 2022, according to the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Response page on the BAH website, HPAI hit Minnesota, with 2,963,744 birds being afflicted, mostly at commercial turkey farms. The Rochester Post Bulletin reported in June:
As of June 16, 2022, Minnesota has had 2.99 million birds infected over a three month period since the first case was detected. The first case detected in Minnesota was also the largest discovery to date. The case was identified on March 25 in Meeker County at a commercial turkey farm where 287,507 turkey’s became infected with the avian flu.
The Minnesota Board of Animal Health has been tracking cases and data within the state. As of June 16, 2022, there have been 80 total cases, 51 of which commercial turkey farms in Minnesota have had infections and needed to shut down to quarantine. Only one case has been reported in the Rochester area, on a commercial turkey farm in Dodge County on April 3, where 20,971 birds were infected by the flu.
When we look at Garcia's other career, Bluestem doesn't think her specialization in turkeys will limit her ability to lead at BOH to helping out the poultry industry.
On the U.S. Army Reserve website, we read in the Maj. Gen. Marion Garcia Army Reserve Chief of Staff profile:
. . . MG Garcia graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1987 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Military Police Corps. Her military education includes the Military Police Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the Combined Arms Service Staff School, the Command and General Staff College, the United States Army War College, and the Advanced Joint Professional Military Education School. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Science from the United States Military Academy, a Master of Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College, a Master of Science in Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health from the Royal Veterinary College at the University of London, and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Degree from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Colorado State University.
Her civilian professional background includes working as a production veterinarian in the poultry industry, ensuring animals are healthy and free of diseases to provide a safe and wholesome consumer product. She also provided agricultural expertise in support of the United States forces in Iraq and assisted the Republic of Georgia national veterinary services with best practices utilizing laboratory assets and implementing animal disease surveillance programs. . . .
In “A visionary leader”...“a training management guru”, at the Department of Defense's Defense Visual Information Distribution Service website, we read:
FORT LEONARD WOOD, MO--An experienced leader of soldiers and a tough-as-nails trailblazer, Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Marion Garcia has earned induction into the Military Police Regimental Association Hall of Fame.
A child of hard work and ambition, Maj. Gen. Garcia is the daughter of a Marine officer and an au pair-turned-travel agent, Lt. Col. (U.S. Marine Corps, Ret.) Lou Garcia and Ms. Vivian Piaget, respectively. Lou Garcia entered the Marine Corps as a private, received his commission in Vietnam, and retired as a lieutenant colonel after 33 years of service. Vivian Piaget speaks three languages fluently. While working as an au pair for an embassy family in Poland, she met Lou Garcia when he was a young Marine, stationed in Poland on embassy duty. Seeing her parents’ examples as bearers of high standards, Marion Garcia knew her calling in life--military service.
Young Marion Garcia entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1983, a school which first graduated women in 1980. When Garcia graduated from West Point in 1987, women were not allowed to branch into combat arms.
“As a woman commissioning in 1987, the Military Police Corps, which at the time was focused on combat support, was the closest thing to combat arms that I could get,” said Garcia. “I wanted to be where the action was, so I asked for Military Police and was fortunate enough to get it.“
As a second lieutenant in Korea, Garcia earned recognition as the top platoon leader within her battalion. She acknowledged “there was some shock” when her battalion commander chose her, a woman, as the best platoon leader to represent the Military Police in the Second Infantry Division’s Team Spirit exercise, an annual exercise combining the efforts of both Republic of Korea and United States soldiers.
“I was part of a command structure which valued me as an individual and did not prejudge me based on superficial circumstances,” said Garcia. “The MP Corps was ahead of its time, and I always knew that I was part of a team of professionals.”
Maj. Gen. Garcia has seen the entire spectrum of the MP world. She served as a platoon leader in both Germany and in Korea; commanded the Fort Hood-based Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment of the 720th Military Police Battalion which deployed for Operation Provide Comfort in Somalia; commanded the Pennsylvania-based 324th Military Police Battalion which deployed to Baghdad, Iraq; commanded the Illinois-based 3rd Brigade/3rd Division/75th Training Command; served as Deputy Commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and commanded the 200th Military Police Command, headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland.
Garcia credits active listening as one of her leadership tools.
“The best ideas came from the soldiers,” said Garcia, reminiscing on her days as a battalion commander running a detention facility in Iraq. “All I had to do was listen, challenge the staff to fill out the details, and resource their ideas. To work with motivated, creative young people is a blessing.”
Through deployment after deployment, Maj. Gen. Garcia has seen the military police branch accomplish its multi-focal mission set.
“We are unique in our supporting role. In peacetime the law enforcement role is critical to good order and discipline across the force,” said Garcia, through a lens influenced by multinational and multi-deployment experience. “In transitioning to hostilities, we ensure orderly movements. In wartime, we support the smooth flow of logistics and manage the enemy prisoners as well as the civilian population flow, allowing the warfighters to move forward. Then we transition back in phases.”
Proud of her pro-MP bias, Garcia articulated, “We don’t need to be the main effort. We are the best effort.”
Maj. Gen. John F. Hussey succeeded Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Garcia as commander of the 200th Military Police Command, a 14,000-strong unit headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland with brigades and battalions throughout the United States.
“Maj. Gen. Garcia is one of the most knowledgeable officers on Military Police doctrine that the Regiment has ever produced,” said Hussey. “She was a training management guru who was second to none in demanding training excellence of herself and her troops.”
Lt. Col. John Mullaney served as a Deputy Operations Officer (G-3) in the 200th Military Police Command for three years and then, directly reporting to Maj. Gen. Garcia from 2015 to 2017, as the Headquarters and Headquarters Company Commander for three more years.
“Maj. Gen. Garcia is a visionary leader who understood the need for military police to be prepared to be able to conduct operations under austere conditions and with imperfect or non-functioning technology,” said Mullaney. “She challenged subordinate leaders to live up to their full potential and to be worthy of leading America’s sons and daughters into combat”
How Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Garcia has been able to serve as a leader of Military Police soldiers and as a leader in the veterinary sciences field is, at least in part, due to her passion for education. Education is a major foundation of her progression in both her military and civilian careers. Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Garcia earned her Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1987; Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Colorado State University in 1998; a Masters Degree in Military Strategic Studies from the Army War College in 2010; and a Master’s Degree in Veterinary Preventive Medicine, Epidemiology, and Public Health from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London in 2015. Today, she is the Director of Veterinary Services at Hybrid Turkeys. . . .
Will this appointment prove to be an example of regulatory capture by the turkey industry or educated public interest policing by a smart, disciplined retired military top cop? Worth watching.
Photo: Maj. Gen. Marion Garcia, commanding general of the 200th Military Police Command listens to staff providing her the battle update during an annual training exercise at Fort Knox, Kentucky, April 27, 2018. On order, the 200th MP Command can deploy as the theater enabling commander for military police operations in support of combatant or joint task force commanders, providing mission command for all MP assets and synchronizing all MP operational planning and support. During such operations, the 200th MP Command is designated as the theater provost marshal and commander of detainee operations. (U.S. Army Reserve photo by Sgt. Elizabeth Taylor).
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