AAV Expands Scholarships and Virtual CE Options for Avian Practitioners in 2026

Scholarship funding for avian veterinary conferences has historically favored veterinary students. The Association of Avian Veterinarians shifted that calculus this month, announcing in its March 2026 NewsLink bulletin that expanded support now covers both one veterinary student and one veterinary technician or tech student for the AAV Annual Conference & Expo in Austin, Texas.

That conference runs in October, but the more immediate deadline is May 1. That's when early bird pricing closes for the Avian Medicine Virtual program, a one-day, eight-hour CE event designed for practitioners who can't commit to a multi-day in-person conference. Registration opened this month. The curriculum covers coelomic ultrasound, behavior, emergency and critical care, and species-specific management, subjects most directly tied to how a parrot practice handles complex cases.

The March bulletin, the AAV's February/March member newsletter, is aimed at veterinarians, technicians, and allied professionals caring for companion and captive birds. Alongside the virtual CE and scholarship news, it noted ongoing internship and residency match results and pointed members toward two major in-person events on the 2026 calendar: ICARE in Europe in April, and the Austin conference in October.

The scholarship expansion carries real weight. Technicians carry a significant share of daily clinical responsibility in companion bird practices, and getting them into a specialist conference builds the kind of hands-on knowledge that shapes care at the exam table level. A dedicated tech scholarship slot makes that access structural rather than incidental.

Between the virtual program and the expanded scholarship, the 2026 calendar offers clinicians and students more entry points into serious avian training than most recent years have provided. The May 1 early bird deadline closes that window quickly.