Agriculture students and advisors from across the state attended the 2025 Kentucky Future Farmers of America (FFA) Convention held June 10^th through 12^th at the Central Bank Center in Lexington.  The Kentucky State Convention experience highlights the areas of building communities, growing leaders, and strengthening agriculture. The Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention (SCAHIP) provided an educational booth in the exhibition wing that highlighted awareness and prevention of vector-borne diseases, such as Lyme disease, Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.  

SCAHIP team members talked with students on the best ways to prevent tick and mosquito bites. The students were particularly interested in the information cards provided on different species of ticks.  These cards included a picture of the tick and information on prevention.  Special cards on how to properly remove ticks were also provided.  Teachers and advisors were given resource cards (Click Here) that included a QR code linking to many different resources on agricultural health and safety that they could use in their classrooms. Over 60 agricultural health and safety resource cards and 300 first-aid kits were distributed. The information provided on AGS was also very popular. AGS is a food allergy to the sugar molecule, alpha-gal. AGS is primarily linked to bites from the lone star tick.  People with AGS are allergic to red meat and other products made from mammals. Many participants discussed their personal experience with AGS and noted that they had viewed the recent UK College of Agriculture webinar on AGS, which they found particularly helpful and informative.  

The SCAHIP outreach team is looking forward to providing a similar educational booth at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis on October 28^th through 31^st.