KC Bio Animal Health & Nutrition

Vet shortage is issue of food

The Kansas City Star
By Jason Gertzen
09/26/06

When newly trained veterinarians pick careers these days, puppies and kitties are popular. Cows and chickens, not so much.

Americans are paying more than $38 billion a year to pamper their pets and offer them the best medical care, a fact not escaping the attention of many vet school graduates burdened with student loan debt often around $100,000.

For those veterinarians who find a rewarding career caring for companion animals, good for them.
A problem, however, is that far too few veterinarians are left to fill the critical roles of protecting the nation’s food supply and the public’s health. Vets working for companies and government agencies are stalwart sentinels needed to help keep mad cow-infected beef out of the grocery store and maladies such as avian influenza from spreading widely.

Last week, civic leaders gathering at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Economic Forecast Breakfast considered the substantial financial effect the animal health industry is making in the region.

The Kansas City Animal Health Corridor initiative also is making other important contributions.
Key members of the effort are emerging as national leaders in addressing the ominous implications of this vet shortage.

Bayer Animal Health in Shawnee commissioned a $300,000 study done by Kansas State University researchers who backed up anecdotal information with statistics showing that the supply of food supply veterinarians is not keeping up with demand.

The overall shortfall is expected to be about 4 percent, according to the study.

“That doesn’t sound severe, but there is such a small number of veterinarians in that field,” said Lyle Vogel, director of the animal welfare division of the American Veterinary Medical Association in Schaumburg, Ill. “Any shortage is critical.”

Many veterinary schools have directed their primary attention to companion animal care, said Ralph Richardson, dean of the Kansas State College of Veterinary Medicine. “We have inadvertently let some other areas slip.”

Located much closer to beef country than its vet school counterparts on the coasts, Kansas State has a heritage of producing food supply veterinarians. The school is returning to these roots with a campaign that has included the hiring of 25 professionals with food production and food safety experience, exposing students more to opportunities in this aspect of the industry and capitalizing on a state program that forgives up to $20,000 a year of the student loans of a veterinarian in a rural county.

Worries that some students have about encountering frustration in a rural practice proved largely to be misconceptions, said Cary Christensen, Bayer’s senior director of strategic growth in veterinary services. The study showed a high degree of satisfaction among those actually working in those settings.

Christensen, who worked in rural practice in central Iowa before joining Bayer, said the research showed that he and his colleagues needed to do a better job of reaching out to students as they decide their futures.

For more information, contact:
Lynn Parman
Vice President, Life Sciences & Technology
Kansas City Area Development Council
2600 Commerce Tower
911 Main Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64105-2049
Direct: 816.374.5627
Email: parman@thinkKC .com