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

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AAVMC Conference: Addressing the changing dynamics of food animal production At the recent 2012 Annual Conference of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC), veterinarians, veterinary medical educators, and representatives of the food animal production industry discussed the rapidly-changing nature of animal agriculture and how veterinary medical education and veterinary practice can respond. Experts described a strong global demand for food combined with the changing dynamic resulting from the consolidation and regionalization of the swine, poultry, and dairy industries in the United States. The swine industry is primarily located in the upper Midwest and in North Carolina, while the poultry industry is primarily located in Southeast. In contrast, while some large dairies remain in Florida and the New England states, much of the dairy industry is migrating west, focusing in the upper Midwest, California, Oklahoma, Arizona, eastern New Mexico, and the Texas panhandle. In each commodity, the number of farms is decreasing but the size of operations is increasing, reducing the number of veterinarians required to serve on a day-to-day basis. Instead, these industries are hiring veterinarians as consultants for specialized services related to education and management to minimize diseases, address food safety and animal welfare concerns, and become more involved in managing the impact of these operations on the environment. “Rural veterinary practitioners will need to respond to this changing 7 Photo by Sue Myers Smith The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine dynamic by offering a diversity of services, including those that address the health of all species as well as the community’s public health and environmental management needs,” said veterinarian Bennie Osburn, interim executive director of the AAVMC. Worldwide, experts expect that a great demand for agriculture and animal protein will expand the market for U.S.-produced food, increasing the need for the veterinary medical supervision and expertise. For example, China is about equal to or slightly smaller than the U.S. in size, but 70 percent of China’s land mass is mountains, plateaus, and hills, much of which is not conducive to agriculture, including raising livestock. With 1.34 billion people versus 313 million in the U.S., China is expected to experience a huge demand for food to feed its burgeoning population, as will other areas of the world. “The animal health industry is at a crossroads,” said Rick Sibbel, director of technical services for U.S. cattle for Merck Animal Health, who pointed out that the veterinarians of tomorrow will need business and communication skills as well as medical skills. His observation aligns with the recommendations outlined in The Roadmap for Veterinary Medical Education in the 21st Century: Responsive, Collaborative, Flexible, a report produced by the AAVMC as part of the North American Veterinary Medical Education Consortium (NAVMEC), which calls for an emphasis on the competencies required for practice. For rural practitioners, those competencies would include communication skills, personnel management, education of farmworkers, business skills, and leadership. The report also addressed the importance of reducing educational costs and student debt, as well as the recommended development of Centers of Excellence, which could be consolidated in areas of industry specialization and focus. The creation of Centers of Excellence would reduce the costs of specialized education for individual colleges and take advantage of the economies of scale available in areas where a concentration of livestock and specialized expertise exists. Conference attendees also emphasized the need for loan repayment programs to assist those new graduates in repaying their student loans as they build practices in rural communities. “The information from these sessions, which brought the veterinary industry and education together, will form the basis for reviewing and planning for more collaboration of colleges to address the changing educational needs of America’s diverse agricultural systems,” said Osburn.
Photos by Sue Myers Smith D o n ’ T M i s s T h e D e a n ’ s T a i l g a T e ! CVM among four veterinary schools to receive $700,000 dairy grant The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine is one of four veterinary schools to receive a $700,000 grant to implement the National Center of Excellence in Dairy Production Medicine Education for Veterinarians. The College will collaborate with veterinary colleges at the University of Minnesota, the University of Illinois and Kansas State University under the grant, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The University of Minnesota’s Dairy Education Center, located in New Sweden, Minn., will serve as the primary location for the Center’s operations. Senior veterinary students from each university will undergo four two-week clinical rotations at the Center, studying dairy health management, production systems, food safety and food system security. We’ll see you there! Sept. 29, 2012 NIH includes veterinarians as eligible for loan repayment Veterinarians are now listed under the “general eligibility requirements” for student loan repayment programs administered by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). To qualify for loan repayment, “you must have a health professional doctoral degree (MD, Psy. D, Pharm. D, DO, DDS, DMD, DPM, DC, ND, DVM, or equivalent doctoral degree) from an accredited institution.” The specific inclusion of veterinarians resulted from meetings with NIH representatives, arranged by the AAVMC’s governmental affairs firm of Cavarocchi, Ruscio, Dennis (CRD) Associates, LLC. “This is a breakthrough,” said Brian T. Smith, the AAVMC’s governmental affairs director. “AAVMC has consistently maintained that veterinarians have always met the general eligibility requirements and we appreciate that NIH publicly recognizes this fact on its website. This also aligns with our mission, as outlined in the NAVMEC report, to stress One Health and how veterinarians are important members of our nation’s healthcare team.” AAVMC will continue to work with CRD Associates to expand the eligibility of veterinarians to include clinical NIH loan repayment programs. For more information, see: www.lrp.nih.gov/eligibility/eligibility_of_individuals.aspx Aesculapian Spring/Summer 2012 8
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Page 5 and 6: Jackwood now heads Department of Po
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Page 17 and 18: Livingston and Seifarth enjoy their
Page 19 and 20: Jacky Fortier pours a glass of Moun
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Page 23 and 24: training gives us an edge over MDs
Page 25 and 26: 2012 Phi Zeta Veterinary Honor Soci
Page 27 and 28: CVM students selected for bovine ex
Page 29 and 30: will help expose students to not on
Page 31 and 32: Soyoung Kwon First graduate of the
Page 33 and 34: Steve Budsberg, Karen Cornell, Mary
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Page 41 and 42: A new president: Dr. Flynn Nance Dr
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Page 45 and 46: Mueller and Waggoner win 2012 Frate
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