Land & Environment
The award comes amid his 38th year of teaching veterinary students
David Wilson demonstrates a model of a cow to children at an event in Kaysville.
College of Veterinary Medicine professor David J. Wilson has been named the 2026 recipient of the American Dairy Science Association’s DeLaval Dairy Extension Award.
The DeLaval Award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the dairy industry through work in production, manufacturing, marketing or youth development, and recipients must be both active in the field and have at least 10 years of dairy extension experience with an educational or public institution at the time of nomination.
Wilson says he considers the award a great honor.
“What I am especially gratified about is that it would never have been possible without many great collaborations,” he says. “The Utah dairy producers, Utah dairy veterinarians, other members of the Utah dairy industry, and numerous colleagues including students as well as faculty at Utah State University helped make this possible.”
“Dr. Wilson’s recognition with the ADSA award is an exceedingly fitting testament to the monumental impact his extension activities have had for both dairy production veterinarians and dairy producers at the state, regional, and national level over the course of his 20-year career as Dairy Extension Veterinarian at Utah State University,” says Dr. Dirk Vanderwall, dean of Utah State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
Wilson, who has been a member of the ADSA since 1990, started his teaching career at Michigan State University. He estimates he has taught approximately 1,000 veterinary students over 38 years, between Michigan State, Cornell University and Utah State University. He has taught dairy and animal science to undergraduates and graduate students, and served as a mentor for MS and Ph.D. students in veterinary medicine, dairy science and food science.
Wilson’s extension and research work is primarily focused on mastitis and milk quality but also includes bovine immunology, stray voltage, mycoplasma and other diseases, and abnormalities in cloned cattle, sheep and goats. He is a state board member of the Utah Veterinary Medical Association.
Since 2006 when he joined Utah State, Wilson has contributed to and planned extension outreach workshops and conferences in the Intermountain West. He also planned and conducted three stateside survey projects using repeated samplings of bulk tank milk for detection of Mycoplasma spp., Johne’s disease, and Bovine Viral Diarrhea virus (BVD). Each of these projects was accompanied by a farm visit follow-up program to help individual farms reduce or eliminate any diseases, if detected.
In 2024, Wilson was active in statewide planning and implementation of dairy herd control programs for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI/H5N1 when HPAI was detected in dairy herds in Utah.
“A lot of great people in the Idaho and Colorado dairy industries were integral to this as well,” Wilson says. “I will treasure forever the relationships with all of those that helped with our accomplishments in dairy cattle health and milk quality. This award also reflects on Utah State University, the Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences Department, and the USU College of Veterinary Medicine. My eternal gratitude to all of them.”
Wilson will be presented with the award at the annual meeting of the American Dairy Science Association, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 21-24.
Nadia Pflaum
Public Relations Specialist
College of Veterinary Medicine
nadia.pflaum@usu.edu
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