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Animal Health Care Crisis On Horizon

published: January 21st 2011
by: Willie Reed, dean of Purdue University S
source: Indianapolis Star

As the nation focuses on health care, there's an entire area that most of us haven't considered: care for our animals. Yet, these animals face a critical challenge: There are not enough health-care providers. There is only one veterinarian in this country for every 10,000 companion and large animals, including dogs, cats, chickens, turkeys, dairy cows, beef cattle, swine, sheep and horses.

Animals represent a $900 billion industry, and the shortage of veterinarians impacts all of us.

Two out of three households have a dog or a cat, and the U.S. meat and poultry industries provide the meat on our dinner tables and eggs in our omelets. While our 28 schools of veterinary medicine across the country rise to meet this challenge, there's a particular need to find students who want to care for large animals such as beef and dairy cattle, horses, sheep and hogs.

Still other veterinary professionals are needed in public health, pathology, teaching, regulatory medicine and research. Animals serve as health sentinels for us. Think about H1N1, mad cow and West Nile diseases that affect humans as well as animals. Veterinarians have been at the forefront preventing, researching, monitoring and trying to contain their spread.

The therapies developed for animals and the medical clues we learn from treating them often translate into improved health-care options for you and me as well. Our comparative oncology program, for example, focuses on identifying causes and cures for pets' cancer that might one day apply to all of us.

The tremendous demand for veterinarians is creating career opportunities, but preparing, attracting and educating new students will take time. In most cases, it takes eight years to train a new veterinarian. Students first complete pre-veterinary college requirements and then invest another four years in veterinary school. Many even go beyond that, specializing in the same areas that serve human health, from oncology to orthopedics to ophthalmology.

One way to meet this need for more veterinarians is to encourage our youngsters to consider these careers early. Purdue University is reaching out with Boiler Vet Camps, Boiler Vet Clubs, ZipTrips (electronic field trips for middle-school children) and a diversity scholarship program. We also are one of only three veterinary schools in the country that train both veterinarians and veterinary technicians. To date, Purdue has graduated 1,000 veterinary technicians who possess the nursing skills to support veterinarians.

We should encourage students with an interest in science to consider veterinary medicine as a career. At Purdue, we are doing our part through creative and innovative programming and by planning to expand enrollment in our School of Veterinary Medicine by 20 percent.

These initiatives, coupled with a concerted effort in our country to recognize and promote the importance of the veterinary profession, will enable us collectively to ensure quality care for the animals that play such an important role in our lives and in our economy.