American Agricultural Editors Association

DTN Evolving Vets

Published November 2005

Evolving Vets 1: Rural Numbers Shrink 11/14

Food-animal veterinarians face a host of challenges as their numbers decline, the agricultural industry consolidates and issues such as bioterrorism surface. In this series, DTN examines how food-animal veterinarians are evolving to meet the needs of customers and the agricultural industry. This article takes readers to rural America where the number of large-animal veterinarians is diminishing, a trend that is worrying vets and livestock producers.

-Vets, Industry Officials Commission Study to Examine Problem

By Aine Gianoli
DTN Staff Reporter

HYANNIS, Neb. (DTN) -- Gary Sears hefted a couple of translucent plastic jugs full of lubricant into the back of his Ford F150, adding them to a pile of supplies that included arm-length plastic gloves and an old tire.

Called "Doc" by some of his customers, Sears has repeated this routine many times in his 38 years as a veterinarian in Grant County, Neb. As summer rolls into autumn, ranchers need to know how many of their cows and heifers are pregnant, which keeps the Hyannis Veterinary Service vets and technicians busy during the fall and calving keeps them booked in the spring.

After driving for nearly 45 minutes, Sears pulled into a field near Mullen, Neb., where a herd of Angus heifers milled around in the morning sun. Five ranchers immediately began to arrange gates and shoo cattle into pens as Sears chained a tire to the inside of a chute to minimize the animal's hind-end movement while he palpated its reproductive tract.

Nearly two hours later, Sears checked the last of the 107 heifers, peeled off his soaked glove, gathered his gear, exchanged goodbyes and headed back to Hyannis.

"Basically, we are almost entirely cow-calf (vets)," he said. "Doing those heifers this morning was a lot more enjoyable than seeing 10 (small animals) in the same amount of time."

Large-animal veterinarians like Sears and Bill Baker are becoming a scarce resource in parts of the rural United States. Fewer and fewer veterinary graduates are interested in rural food animal practices and as a generation of vets begins to retire, the shortage of replacements is worrying veterinarians and the livestock producers they serve.

The issue isn't simply about a shortage of veterinarians in large animal practices, said Brett Andrews, a veterinarian in Burwell, Neb., and member of the Academy of Rural Veterinarians -- it's about shortages in rural areas.

While the days of a James Herriot's "All Creatures Great and Small" 1940s style veterinary practice are quickly passing, some rural areas -- including Hyannis, where the vet office phone is connected to Baker's home and Sears' so they can be reached at any time of the day or night, seven days a week -- still need a vet who can tend to a variety of species at any time.

Sears and Baker serve ranchers within a 40-mile radius around Hyannis, though they sometimes travel more than 100 miles if needed.

They see their share of small animals, but the attitude of pet owners in the countryside isn't like that of pet owners in the city, Baker said. People in the Hyannis area aren't going to spend $1,000 for treatment on a pet.

"Out here a dog is a dog," he said. "It's not a god or a kid. It's a dog."

The biggest competition a rural vet faces, Sears said, comes from producers who have traditionally been self-sufficient and used to caring for their animals without the help of a vet.

Veterinarians have to prove their experience is an economic asset to ranchers, he said.

Most of the towns surrounding Hyannis have a veterinarian, Sears said. They all try to refrain from infringing on each other's areas, but sometimes ranchers will prefer one vet over another or will have a scheduling conflict and call the vet who fits in their schedule.

No data is available on the total number of large-animal veterinarians who practice in rural areas, but of the 72,000 members of the American Veterinary Medical Association, only 4 percent practice large animal medicine exclusively and 5.4 percent practice it predominately.

About 915 of them practice bovine medicine exclusively. The AVMA's membership represents 86 percent of the total number of vets in the U.S., according to the Internal Revenue Service. Those vets care for more than 115 million cattle, 8 million horses, 56 million hogs and 12 million sheep and lambs.

Veterinary educators and officials are trying to get a handle on how many large animal veterinarians are needed now and in the future. The Food Supply Veterinary Medicine Coalition, formed by various professional veterinary groups in 2004, commissioned a study last year to examine that issue in both the U.S. and Canada. Researchers expect the final results to be released early next year.

Though little data exists, vets and commodity group officials agree there is a shortage. If a 2003 Iowa study is indicative, shortages could be severe in some areas. Researchers hope the new study will reveal the magnitude of the problem.

"We do see a shortage, even in Florida," said Wayne Godwin, vice president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association's cattle health and well being committee. "If we had an outbreak that required a vet to do all the testing, we would be hurt."

Still, Godwin said he hasn't heard of any NCBA producers who aren't able to get vet services.

"You do have to schedule ahead, but we haven't been challenged," he said. "The biggest fear we have is if we had to face an outbreak of something like foot-and-mouth."

Sears and Baker haven't felt the effects of shortage -- yet. They had to work hard to expand their practice to a full-time, two-man operation, but finding replacements once retirement rolls around could be a challenge. They've begun looking for a new hire because 64-year-old Sears would like to reduce his hours somewhat.

"We've had some pretty serious prospects," Sears said, but either the candidates or their spouses decided Hyannis was too rural.

Hyannis needs someone who is serious about living in the Nebraska Sandhills "boondocks," Sears said. "We're not really looking for someone who just wants a year's work experience."

Aine Gianoli can be reached at aine.gianoli@dtn.com.

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Vet Retirees Struggle to Find Buyers 11/14

Food-animal veterinarians face a host of challenges as their numbers decline, the agricultural industry consolidates and issues such as bioterrorism surface. In this series, DTN examines how food-animal veterinarians are evolving to meet the needs of customers and the agricultural industry. This is an accompanying piece to today's series installment.

-Rural, Single-Person Practices Tough to Sell

By Aine Gianoli
DTN Staff Reporter

OMAHA (DTN) -- After a five-year search, Bruce McKee finally found a buyer for his rural mixed veterinary clinic in Gonzalez, Texas.

A former intern purchased the practice that serves beef cattle, horse and small-animal owners. McKee's troubles selling his practice are not uncommon. Retiring vets who planned to boost retirement nest eggs by selling their practices have hopes dashed as new veterinarians shy away from rural food-animal practices operated by one vet.

Some retirees are forced to sell equipment and property piecemeal when they can't find a buyer and "blow their retirement plan," said Brett Andrews, a veterinarian in Burwell, Neb., and member of the Academy of Rural Veterinarians, a group working to recruit new grads to rural practices.

Rural vets have a variety of theories about why it has become so difficult to recruit both purchasers and new hires.

During his 36 years as a vet in Gonzalez County -- the county with the largest number of commercial cows in Texas -- McKee said he has seen a lot of changes in the vet realm.

Thirty years ago, most large-animal vet graduates had rural backgrounds, the physical ability to do the work, common sense and a good work ethic, he said.

The increasingly heavy emphasis on academics seems to have left some students lacking the other attributes needed to handle and desire the job, McKee said.

The problem may boil down to the fact that students have generally had a declining interest in rural food animal practices during the past 20 years, according to existing data. A study commissioned by the Food Supply Veterinary Medicine Coalition and scheduled for release early next year is expected to delve into the subject and find out what is causing the trend.

The problem retirees face is bound to get worse, said Daryl Olsen, the CEO of AMVC Management Services, previously known as the Audubon-Manning Veterinary Clinic, in Audubon, Iowa.

Olsen graduated from vet school in 1982 and joined Audubon-Manning, a bustling large-animal practice operated by four vets. In the late 1980s when the farm economy turned downward, AMVC shifted its focus. The company -- now the 13th largest pork producer in the U.S. -- presently has seven veterinarians, 47 full-time employees and nearly 330 employees who work in swine facilities that AMVC oversees.

One-person clinics are exiting the market, he said, and few people are interested in buying them. Many clinics are consolidating and regional, specialized clinics like AMVC are flourishing Olsen said. The animal industry's demand for specialization is increasing, as is the demand for more services, such as nutrition consultation.

"We're not a clinic anymore, we are a business," Olsen said.

Aine Gianoli can be reached at aine.gianoli@dtn.com.

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Evolving Vets 2: Background Influences 11/15

Food-animal veterinarians face a host of challenges as their numbers decline, the agricultural industry consolidates and issues such as bioterrorism surface. In this series, DTN examines how food-animal veterinarians are evolving to meet the needs of customers and the agricultural industry. Part 2 examines factors that may account for the dwindling number of food-animal veterinary students.

-Rural Vets Visit Colleges, Mentor Students

By Aine Gianoli
DTN Staff Reporter

ADIN, Calif. (DTN) -- Oregon State University's College of Veterinary Medicine had 36 students in its May 2005 class. On graduation day three of them planned to practice large-animal medicine; nine of them wanted to work in a mixed practice. The rest were opting for small-animal practices.

Ryan DePaul, 26, who grew up on a ranch and was active in FFA, was one of the few who wanted to work with large animals in a rural community. He studied large- and small-animal medicine so he'd be ready for anything.

"I knew I wanted to come back to a rural area. I just knew I wouldn't be able to work in a city," he said. "You have to do a little bit of everything when you are out (here)."

Students like DePaul have caused some educators, livestock producers and rural veterinarians to reach the same conclusion -- the best bet for increasing the number of rural vets is to recruit students who grew up in rural communities.

The percentage of vet students from urban areas is increasing just as the number of graduates opting for large-animal practices is decreasing, said Brett Andrews, a veterinarian in Burwell, Neb., who spends 85 percent of his time working with cattle.

"It's hard to get urban people out in a rural area," he said.

American Veterinary Medical Association statistics reveal the majority of new vets opt for small animal practices, but the statistic doesn't take into account whether or not graduates grew up in rural or urban areas.

Kansas State University business college researchers who are assessing the supply and demand for food supply veterinarians in a study commissioned by the Food Supply Veterinary Medicine Coalition said preliminary results reveal systematic evidence that students with rural backgrounds are more likely to select a food-animal veterinary career than students raised in urban areas.

Veterinarian Gordie Jones, director of herd performance for Fair Oaks Dairy Farm, Fair Oaks, Ind., and self-proclaimed "ghetto rat from Detroit" -- a city kid turned vet -- said urban students make excellent vets and should be recruited by veterinary schools.

But David Andrus, the KSU business professor in charge of the coalition's study, said anecdotal evidence, while valid, shouldn't receive the same weight as systematic research and veterinary educators should remember in the business world, the largest customer base is the best one to target.

"(People) almost always want to live in the size of the community they grew up in," Andrus said.

Oregon State University doesn't keep records on whether students have been raised in rural or urban environments, but DePaul said 60 percent of his classmates with rural backgrounds -- slightly less than half of the class was from rural areas -- returned to rural communities to work while those from urban backgrounds all returned to urban areas.

If people haven't worked with large animals when they were young, they are less likely to work with them later on, Andrews said. By the time a child is in the fourth grade they have a general idea of what they would like to do, he said.

According to a study surveying 17- to 21-year-old vet students in Australia -- a country where students enter veterinary programs at a younger age than those in the U.S. -- 30 percent of veterinary students chose their career before they were 12-years-olds. Twenty-eight percent of the males and 72 percent of the females surveyed chose their career path before they were 17.

Local recruitment is a key part of attracting students to rural practices, Andrews said.

"We've got to take care of the kids in our own little town," before recruiting in other regions, he said.

The Academy of Rural Veterinarians, a network of veterinarians from across the U.S., of which Andrews is a member, is designed to do just that by educating local students and veterinary students particularly through college visits and a mentoring program, he said.

The group's mission is to get to universities and colleges and speak to students about the benefits of a rural practice, ARV's web site said.

"There is presently a crisis in small town and rural America because professionals, including but not limited to veterinarians, are reluctant to have careers in rural areas citing the lack of cultural activities, low income, long hours, and general isolation in many forms," according to the ARV. "We veterinarians ... are going to return to the campuses of veterinary colleges across the country and tell our story. We feel that our lack of input over the years in the veterinary colleges has led to misperceptions about what life in a rural mixed practice is really like."

Experience with large animals is the biggest factor affecting students' veterinary career choices, according to a study of University of Wisconsin students conducted this year by Pamela Ruegg, an associate dairy science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Even post-childhood experiences, such as introductory animal science courses in college, attract students to large-animal medicine, she said.

During college, DePaul worked in rural practices in Oregon and western Nebraska. He worked in eight clinics as a student and was offered a job at each one.

DePaul, who is now working for a veterinary practice in Modoc County, Calif., where he was raised, said a rural practice is really a lifestyle.

"If you want to get a job in a rural area, they are everywhere," he said. "The opportunity is here."

Aine Gianoli can be reached at aine.gianoli@dtn.com.

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Women Fill Vet Schools 11/15

Food-animal veterinarians face a host of challenges as their numbers decline, the agricultural industry consolidates and issues such as bioterrorism surface. In this series, DTN examines how food-animal veterinarians are evolving to meet the needs of customers and the agricultural industry. This is an accompanying piece to today's series installment.

-Industry Undergoes Demographic Transition

By Aine Gianoli
DTN Staff Reporter

OMAHA (DTN) -- In 1903, Mignon Nicholson became the first woman known to graduate from a U.S. veterinary school. Seven years later Elinor McGrath followed her footsteps and became the second known U.S.-educated female vet and the first to be admitted membership to the American Veterinary Medical Association in 1916.

"The only rule I made was that if I had a goal to reach, I overcame the obstacles involved," McGrath said, according to the Association for Women Veterinarians' web site.

If only Nicholson and McGrath could see their profession now.

Women accounted for 69.5 percent of vet graduates in 2000, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. Nearly 80 percent of vet school applicants for the class of 2007 were female, according to Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges data.

That trend is not unique to veterinary medicine, if we look at the general trends in higher education, said Pamela Ruegg, a veterinarian and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2003, 16.6 million students were enrolled in U.S. colleges, of which 56 percent were females. Women have represented the majority of college students since 1979, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Despite what some believe, the shortage of food-animal veterinarians is not associated with the increase in female vet students, Ruegg said.

Many females are opting to study large-animal medicine as well as small, she said. Males generally have less interest in any type of veterinary science, according to a survey Reugg did this year.

The strongest influence on career choice was not gender, instead it was the student's experiences working with animals, she said. Academic standing was also a major determinant. Students in the top 25 percent of their high school class were three times more likely to have considered a career in veterinary medicine.

A study commissioned by the Food Supply Veterinary Medicine Coalition is expected to shed more light on the increasing number of women in food-animal medicine. More than 80 percent of large- and mixed-animal practitioners in 2004 were men, but as women continue to dominate vet school enrollment that majority is expected to slip as males exit the industry and females replace them.

Those women can give Nicholson and McGrath a nod of thanks.

Aine Gianoli can be reached at aine.gianoli@dtn.com.

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Evolving Vets 3: Consolidation 11/16

Food-animal veterinarians face a host of challenges as their numbers decline, the agricultural industry consolidates and issues such as bioterrorism surface. In this series, DTN examines how food-animal veterinarians are evolving to meet the needs of customers and the agricultural industry. Part 3 delves into the issue of agricultural consolidation and the effect it's having on veterinarians who are worried about the future of their profession.

-Food Supply Vets Find New Opportunities

By Aine Gianoli
DTN Staff Reporter

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (DTN) -- The need for veterinarians who travel from farm to farm treating individual animals is diminishing as veterinary medicine accommodates an agricultural industry where large-scale animal herds are housed, said food-animal veterinarians at an Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges workshop.

The dairy sector is rapidly following the path laid by the swine and poultry industries, which have vertically integrated, said veterinarian Gordie Jones, the director of herd performance for Fair Oaks Dairy Farm, a 12,000 cow operation in Fair Oaks, Ind., meaning they've branched into more than one phase of production.

A large dairy, for example, might contract with a single company that would provide all of the financing, feed, genetics, consulting, processing and marketing for the operation. The dairy industry still differs from swine and poultry industries because its integration -- for the most part -- means private owners contract with a company for the infrastructure they provide whereas in the poultry or swine industry one company, such as Tyson, may own every step of the process, said DTN Dairy Analyst Rick Kment.

"Unlike the swine and poultry industries, the dairy industry utilizes a wider array of inputs such as forages and grains," Kment said. "The processing and distribution system is more complex because of the variety of products."

Jones said dairies of the future fall into one of four groups: Sunset dairies, which are smaller to mid-sized operations that can no longer compete and will exit the industry once the operator retires or decides to sell to a bigger dairy; niche dairies, which are specialty operations such as Amish farms and those that specialize in organic products; lifestyle dairies, which are operations passed down through the generations or supported by off-farm incomes; and large dairies, which are vertically integrated systems that milk thousands of cows.

Vets will be needed to serve those four groups, he said, but as the overall number of dairy operations continues to decline so will the need for dairy vets, particularly if vets don't recognize how they fit into the revamped industry, step into new roles and market their unique knowledge.

Veterinarians need to acquire managerial roles, Jones said, because that's where they can put their unique knowledge and perspective to work.

In a vertically integrated dairy operation someone other than a vet can be trained to provide technical services, such as checking for pregnancies, at a much lower cost, Jones said. Drug sales can be provided through other channels, though prescriptions still need to be written by a vet.

"The farm industry is first and foremost -- don't make the mistake (of perceiving it otherwise) -- a money-making industry," said veterinarian Rick Sibbel, manager of technical services for Global Animal Management, Inc. "I have never seen more opportunities for food-animal veterinarians than I see now." Veterinarians who don't embrace the business aspect of the DVM profession are not going to fit in with the future of agriculture, he said.

Traditional perceptions of veterinary medicine in society and the profession need to change, said Candace Jacobs, vice president of H-E-B Grocery Company, a retailer based in San Antonio, Texas, that employs nearly 56,000 people.

More vets, for example, will have roles in the food-safety arena, she said.

Jacobs knows something about using her expertise in non-traditional ways. She was a research vet for the U.S. Air Force before going to state agencies in Nebraska and Washington where she worked in toxicology and public policy. For five years she worked for Coca Cola in its scientific and regulatory affairs department as an allergen expert. Another vet worked in the company's pathology department.

"We were there for our scientific expertise," she said. "I had the medical background."

Jacobs said coworkers are often surprised to find out that she is a vet and usually respond, "You're not a real veterinarian." But contrary to popular belief, veterinary medicine is about a lot more than clinical practice and direct work with animals, Jacobs said.

She challenged educators to make changes in the way they teach new veterinarians.

"I don't want the profession to be over with -- paralysis by analysis," she said. "We need to gain opportunity share as well maintain our current market share. Just because it's not a (traditional) DVM position doesn't mean we aren't the best people for it.

"We need to stop rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," she said, and that means changing food animal veterinary education from its heavy emphasis on clinical practice into something that encompasses the entire food system.

Aine Gianoli can be reached at aine.gianoli@dtn.com.

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Evolving Vets 4: Shortages 11/17

Food-animal veterinarians face a host of challenges as their numbers decline, the agricultural industry consolidates and issues such as bioterrorism surface. In this series, DTN examines how food-animal veterinarians are evolving to meet the needs of customers and the agricultural industry. Part 4 highlights the U.S. government's need for vets who are food security sentinels and emergency responders.

-Bioterrorism Worries, Fund Shortages Compound Concerns

By Aine Gianoli
Staff Reporter

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (DTN) -- If the U.S. faced an outbreak of a major animal disease the government would be short about 3,000 to 6,000 veterinarians needed to fight the problem, said Ron DeHaven, USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Services administrator, to nearly 100 veterinarians during a workshop for food animal supply educators in Kansas City.

"We need more food animal veterinarians," he said. "We don't have enough person power to respond."

Nearly 2,600 veterinarians are employed by the federal government, according to the National Association of Federal Veterinarians. Government vets fill a variety of roles including tracking and monitoring diseases, evaluating water supplies, food processing plants and drugs, conducting biomedical research and planning for natural or terrorist-related disasters.

About 500 government vets are expected to retire within the next couple of years, DeHaven said, compounding the shortage.

"The real crux of the problem is economics," Dale Boyle, the executive vice president of the National Association of Federal Veterinarians, told DTN. "What used to be economically viable is no longer economically viable."

Even if enough food supply veterinarians were available, there aren't necessarily funds to hire them, DeHaven said.

"(It's) one thing to have the need, but another thing to have the funds to meet the need," he said.

One way the federal government compensates for the shortage of government veterinarians is through USDA-APHIS' National Animal Health Emergency Response Corps, a group of private and state veterinarians and animal technicians who can be activated in case of an emergency to serve as temporary federal personnel.

Corp veterinarians can work for 30 to 60 days a year and technicians for up to 220 days a year and may be deployed to other countries to contain outbreaks. Members were sent to the United Kingdom in 2001-2002 to help control foot-and-mouth disease.

Though veterinarians have always had a role in government services, their importance to the safety of the food system has never received as much attention as it has during the past couple of years, said John Hoffman, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's food and agriculture program manager.

Intentional contamination of the food system is the "poor man's nuke," Hoffman said. Vets need to be prepared and integrated throughout the food system in order to fight bioterrorism, agroterrorism and natural disasters, he said.

Almost any animal disease could be used for terrorist purposes, Boyle said.

"It's a pretty scary thought and then we've got Mother Nature who kind of helps things along anyhow," he said.

Naturally occurring diseases that are highly infectious such as foot-and-mouth disease, avian influenza and hog cholera can travel quickly and are of grave concern, Boyle said.

Veterinary medicine programs should develop homeland security courses, specifically geared to look at agriculture and food production as a system, rather than separate entities, so the U.S. will be better equipped to handle emergencies, Hoffman said. "We need (veterinary colleges) to put together a coordinated effort."

The U.S. also needs to explore other options -- including the military -- for giving vets specialized training, Hoffman said. The military offers a variety of experiences that aren't necessarily available in other venues.

For example, Boyle said, he worked in food safety, lab animal medicine, toxicology, microbiology and medical intelligence in an epidemiology division during his 25 years as a military vet.

"Military ought to be increasing, not decreasing, its number of veterinarians," Hoffman said.

Aine Gianoli can be reached at aine.gianoli@dtn.com.

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Evolving Vets 5: Recruiting 11/18

Food-animal veterinarians face a host of challenges as their numbers decline, the agricultural industry consolidates and issues such as bioterrorism surface. In this series, DTN examines how food-animal veterinarians are evolving to meet the needs of customers and the agricultural industry. Part 5 highlights efforts by veterinary schools to recruit more students.

-Peer Recruiters, Accelerated Programs Attract Students

By Aine Gianoli
DTN Staff Reporter

OMAHA (DTN) -- In Iowa, at least 120 new food animal veterinarians will be needed by 2008 to fill vacancies left by vets who retire or move, according to a 2003 Iowa study on the supply and demand of veterinarians. About 32 percent of Iowa food-animal practices included in the study anticipated replacing a retiring vet by 2008.

That leaves many educators worried about their ability to fill pending food-animal practice job openings.

Each year 20 to 35 food or mixed animal practitioners graduate from Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, the state's only vet school, and anywhere from five to 15 of those graduates stay in Iowa. Even if 15 of the grads choose to stay each year, the state would fall 45 veterinarians short of the 120 projected openings.

This data, gathered in a 2003 survey commissioned by the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association and ISU's Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine, answered IVMA and ISU officials' question about whether there was a vet shortage brewing in the state.

The answer was clear: Iowa needs to boost the number of homegrown vets to reverse the problem. That prompted state officials to spearhead the ISU Veterinary Student Mixed Animal Recruitment Team (V-SMART).

Student recruitment is a solution educators in other states are considering along with accelerated doctor of veterinary medicine programs and debt-relief funds.

V-SMART's mission is to increase the number of students from Iowa entering food-animal veterinary medicine programs, particularly those at ISU, the United States' first public vet school. Founded in 1879, ISU graduates more food animal vets than any other of the 28 U.S. vet colleges, said Patrick Halbur, ISU's veterinary department interim chair. Nearly 2,500 students enroll in U.S. small-, large- and mixed-animal vet programs each year.

Using presentations, exhibits and workshops, V-SMART's 55 members have provided information about food-animal veterinary medicine to nearly 5,300 Iowa youths since its 2004 founding. V-SMART gives presentations at county fairs, FFA conventions, 4-H meetings and schools.

"We think veterinary students going out and talking to young students really has an impact," said Kim Soenksen, 24, V-SMART's president and a third-year veterinary student at ISU. "We travel throughout the state to reach a variety of audiences. We want young people to realize it can be very fulfilling to live in rural areas working with large animals.

"A lot of people out there have the misconception that rural vets work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Although veterinary medicine is a demanding profession, it is still possible to have a satisfying family life in addition to being a successful veterinarian."

V-SMART targets all students, regardless of background, Soenksen said.

"We also want young people who haven't worked with large animals to know there are opportunities in rural areas," she said.

Students at other vet schools are showing a great deal of interest in establishing V-SMART chapters at their universities, Soenksen said, which could develop into a nation-wide network.

ISU doesn't yet have any data on V-SMART's success rate because it is so new, but officials hope to measure its effectiveness as soon as possible. Unofficially, the administration said V-SMART has already played a positive role.

The University of Minnesota is taking a different tack to the vet shortage problem.

Three years ago Minnesota's College of Veterinary Medicine launched the Veterinary Food Animal Scholars Program, commonly called VetFAST, which allows students to apply to vet school as freshman and begin DVM studies after the completion of their third undergraduate year, which reduced the time it takes to earn a DVM.

Program officials hope to draw talented high school students who are interested in food-animal medicine, said Larry Bjorklun, director of admissions and student affairs for Minnesota's veterinary college.

"We wanted to make sure we were attracting those people and not letting them be siphoned off into other careers," he said. "It is not limited to the traditional students from a farm or ranch."

ISU is considering offering a similar program, Halbur said, which would allow three to five students a year into a fast-track plan that would allow them to earn a DVM in six years.

"We would likely lean towards people with a strong farm background," he said, because students with backgrounds in FFA and 4-H are more likely to return to agricultural communities. "They know the quality of life they can live there."

Besides eliminating misperceptions and shortening the time required to earn a DVM, vet educators, professionals and organizations are also trying to help students receive funding.

Aside from offering scholarships, most schools haven't been able to ease the amount of debt accumulated by DVM students -- something that often deters prospective students who opt for degrees that can be earned in less time and yield equal or higher salaries.

A variety of organizations including the American Veterinary Medical Association and Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges are attempting to ease that problem through federal funding.

"If you tell kids 'We are going to help you with your debt,' you've got their interest because they are coming (out of college) with tremendous debt," said Dale Boyle, the executive vice president of the National Association of Federal Veterinarians.

Aine Gianoli can be reached at aine.gianoli@dtn.com.

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Evolving Vets 6: Vets Seek Federal Aid 11/18

Food-animal veterinarians face a host of challenges as their numbers decline, the agricultural industry consolidates and issues such as bioterrorism surface. In this series, DTN examines how food-animal veterinarians are evolving to meet the needs of customers and the agricultural industry. Part 6 discusses efforts to obtain federal assistance for veterinary education.

-Vets Push Legislation to Ease Shortages

By Aine Gianoli
DTN Staff Reporter

OMAHA (DTN) -- Food-supply veterinarians are pinning their funding hopes on two pieces of legislation aimed at alleviating the shortage of vets -- the National Veterinary Medical Service Act and the Veterinary Workforce Expansion Act.

President Bush signed NVMSA in December 2003, but Congress failed to appropriate funds for it until last week. The act was designed to provide underserved areas including rural and urban locations and federal government departments with more vets and to build a network of veterinarians who could be called by USDA to serve in case of an emergency. In return for those services, vets would receive money to pay off their school loans.

The act requested Congress appropriate $20 million a year for three years. That $60 million would be enough pay each recipient $25,000 a year for three years. Recipients volunteering to serve in the National Animal Health Emergency Response Corps -- a group of private and state veterinarians and animal technicians who can be activated in case of an emergency to serve as temporary federal personnel -- could boost that amount by $10,000 a year.

According to the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, 400 veterinarians could participate in the proposed program. Any vet who still had student loans would be eligible.

"The USDA will control the program," said Andrew Maccabe, the associate executive director of the AAVMC. "We've got a very good working relationship (with USDA) ... so I think we will have some pretty good input."

Congress didn't appropriate a dime for the act in 2004 or 2005. This year the House again left the act unfunded, but the Senate recommended supplying $750,000 for a pilot version. That amount was whittled down to $500,000 in the 2006 agriculture appropriations bill conference committee. Both the House and Senate have passed the agriculture appropriations bill and Bush signed it into law last week.

"We are elated that Congress -- in this world of no new money -- came up with $500,000," said Mike Chaddock, director of the American Veterinary Medical Association's division of governmental affairs. "We will work with Congress in the next few years to increase the amount of funds."

The other bill, the Veterinary Workforce Expansion Act, is designed to expand and improve the infrastructure of existing veterinary schools so more graduates could be prepared to work in specialized areas such as public health, homeland security, lab animal medicine, research and food security.

"That is where we are really going to have the shortage," Chaddock said. "The federal government hasn't provided general funding to increase the number of veterinarians in at least 30 years." The act is not designed to boost the number of vets in private practice.

VWEA was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., in April and the House by Rep. Chip Pickering, R-Miss., in May. Maccabe said the Senate Agriculture Committee added the act to a discussion draft of the Agriculture Biosecurity Preparedness Act, which has yet to be introduced.

In its original form, VWEA was designed to provide $1.5 billion for veterinary medical education during the next 10 years through competitive grants. That amount was reduced in the discussion draft to $800 million for five years, Maccabe said.

If the bill is passed under those terms, he said, veterinarians "may not want to rock the boat," but rather revisit the legislation when the five years are set to expire to work on getting an extension.

Congress is expected to pass the agroterrorism bill since it fits well with the Republican majority's agenda, Maccabe said.

"If our legislation stays in the big bill it would have a much better chance of being passed by the Senate," he said.

Aine Gianoli can be reached at aine.gianoli@dtn.com.