Spring/Summer 2012 Aesculapian Magazine - University of Georgia ...

Photo by Christopher B. Herron
graduated from UGA with his DVM in 1983.
“I enjoyed private practice, but I always wanted to
do something with a bigger impact,” says Daley, who
practiced in Chamblee, Ga., for 12 years. “I was always
interested in the CDC, but I didn’t see a pathway as a
clinical veterinarian.”
Eventually, Daley got his MPH from Emory
University and received a fellowship to work at the Food
and Drug Administration before joining EIS in 1997.
While finding a channel into public health was difficult for
Daley, he says that his veterinary background translated
well into his new career.
“The training we get as veterinarians gave me a clinical
perspective that was also applicable to human health,” says
Daley. “That time in practice was valuable and gave me a
client-focused perspective that many of my colleagues [at
EIS] didn’t have — now, my client is the public.”
Clinical veterinarians play a crucial role in the health
of individual animals, but the education veterinarians
receive as students follows the principles of population
health, something that is not emphasized as much in
physician training. The undeniable link between animal
health and human health — now referred to as One Health
Laura Adams (DVM ’11; MPH ’12) completed her DVM and MPH
at UGA before becoming an EIS officer in 2012.
— places veterinarians in a unique position to affect both.
It’s veterinarians who are interested in this animal-human
interface that go into public health, according to Hamilton.
L. Rand Carpenter (DVM ’98), an EIS grad now in
the Tennessee Department of Health, worked in dairy
practice before moving to Haiti as a consultant on the
elimination of lymphatic filariasis, where his interest in
public health was piqued.
“Treating the ill individual, whether it’s an animal
or a human, usually isn’t the most effective way to deal
with disease transmission in populations,” says Carpenter.
“Prevention is more effective, and veterinarians understand
that, especially those involved in agriculture.” Working
on a dairy farm is not much different from working with
human populations, according to Carpenter. “The switch
from dairy to humans may seem extreme to some,” he
says, “but it’s all about the approach — that emphasis on
prevention and disease distribution.”
“Veterinarians make excellent epidemiologists because
we’re trained in population health,” says Kirk Smith (PhD
’95), a veterinarian and EIS alumnus who now works as
supervisor of the Food-borne, Vector-borne and Zoonotic
Disease Unit for the Minnesota Department of Health.
L. Rand Carpenter (DVM ’98), right, and a colleague distribute
oral vaccine baits as part of the 2006 USDA raccoon oral rabies
vaccine campaign in Tennessee.
Aesculapian Spring/Summer 2012 20
Photo courtesy of L. Rand Carpenter