Des Moines Register
07-06-06
Nation facing shortage of livestock veterinarians
Most Iowa State graduates leave the state
By PHILIP BRASHER
For an aspiring veterinarian, Iowa State University student Pete Thomas is in a
distinct minority.
He wants to work with livestock rather than pets.
He wants to stay in Iowa.
"I thought that vet school would be a good way to stay connected with
agriculture, be with livestock and stay on farms without necessarily having the
risk involved with being a farmer," he said.
But veterinarians and livestock industry officials worry that there are too few
future vets like Thomas, especially if there is an outbreak of diseases such as
avian influenza or foot and mouth.
Research published this spring by the American Veterinary Medical Association
projected that the need for livestock veterinarians will grow by 12 percent to 13
percent a year and that four in every 100 positions will remain vacant.
The U.S. Agriculture Department, the biggest employer of veterinarians, will be
short as many as 400 in coming years without an increase in recruitment and a
slowdown in retirements, officials say. USDA vets conduct research, investigate
disease outbreaks and inspect cattle at slaughterhouses for signs of illnesses
such as mad cow disease.
"If we don't have food-animal practitioners in the field as the first line of defense
to detect some of these things, that's a real vulnerability we have," said Mike
Chaddock, a former Michigan state veterinarian who now works for the
Association of American Veterinary Colleges.
The nation's 28 veterinary schools typically graduate 2,500 students a year.
Fewer than 10 percent of those go into food-animal jobs, Chaddock said. Experts
say twice that number is needed.
California alone educates only a fraction of the veterinarians it requires. The state
needs three times as many veterinarians as it now has just for its burgeoning
dairy industry. Starting salaries can reach $100,000 a year, said Bennie Osburn,
dean of the veterinary school at the University of California-Davis.
Even in a rural state like Iowa, there are signs of problems: Of the 106 students
who graduated from ISU's College of Veterinary Medicine this spring, just 17
planned to stay in the state.
And out of the class of 2006, 22 planned to devote part of their practice to large
animals. The Iowa Veterinary Medical Association estimates that the state needs
25 new food-animal vets annually.
"The assumption has been in Iowa that we'll never run out of food at the grocery
store and we'll never run out veterinarians," said Rick Sibbel, an Iowa
veterinarian who helped oversee the American Veterinary Medical Association
study. Sibbel works for a pharmaceutical company, Schering Plough Animal
Health.
The predominance of women in vet schools — 77 percent of the students at Iowa
State are female — is seen by some as a bad sign for the livestock business.
Female vets have traditionally preferred small-animal practices.
Other factors cited for the projected shortage of livestock vets:
• Fewer students are going to veterinary school from rural areas.
• Then there is the cost of an education. Many students leave school with
$80,000 in debt. Thomas, who is entering his fourth and last year in veterinary
school, expects to owe nearly $100,000 by the time he graduates.
"That's definitely a concern. It's by far the largest investment I've ever made in
my life," said Thomas.
There should be no shortage of jobs when he gets out. New graduates from Iowa
State typically get three to six "good quality" offers, said Patrick Halbur, who is
interim chairman of Iowa State's veterinary diagnostic and production
animal medicine department.
There were as many as 72 openings for food animal veterinarians being
advertised on Iowa State's Web site.
Many of the jobs aren't in Iowa, however. The dairy jobs in California pay far
more than the $55,000 to $60,000 that a new vet might earn in the Midwest. UCDavis graduated 122 veterinary students this year, 16 more than Iowa State.
Legislators and veterinary schools are looking at ways to attract more students
interested in livestock medicine.
The American Veterinary Medical Association research recommends giving
students debt relief if they go to work in underserved areas and says more
scholarships are needed.
A federal law passed in 2004 authorized USDA to repay the student debt of new
veterinarians who work in rural areas or inner cities, but the department has yet
to implement rules for the program.
In the meantime, Iowa State started a pair of internship programs this year
designed to familiarize veterinary students with hog and dairy operations while
they are still in school.
"It will help in recruiting. It will keep people interested in the food-animal area,"
said Donald Draper, the veterinary college's associate dean for academic affairs.
Curtis Nelson, an ISU student from Le Mars, grew up in town, but he became
interested in caring for livestock by helping a local veterinarian. He wants to work
with dairy cattle and isn't sure he will stay in Iowa.
"It's kind of a good time to be going into (a farm practice) since there are so many
people retiring and such a need for food-animal veterinarians," he said.
Thomas, who grew up on a farm near Camanche in eastern Iowa, wants to work
with hogs and possibly beef and dairy cattle. His younger brother also is studying
to become a veterinarian.
"There are quite a few more job openings than there will be people graduating,"
he said. "I don't have a whole lot of uncertainty about being able to find a job."
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