Modern Careers in Veterinary Medicine Jobs of a different stripe…

What do veterinarians do? Veterinarians are trained to do three things: –Prevent disease –Diagnose disease –Treat disease Obviously there is a lot that goes into each of these categories!

Classic Veterinary Job When you think about a veterinarian’s job, what comes to mind? –Working in a clinic? –Vaccinating pets? –Performing surgery? –Saving animals’ lives? Veterinarians do that, and a whole lot more!

What do veterinarians do? Today’s veterinarians have more career options than ever before. And it all comes back to our knowledge about the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease!

Preventing Disease An ounce of prevention is worth…. –A pound of cure! Many veterinarians work to prevent disease in both animals and people. Let’s look at a few examples…

Preventing Disease Veterinarians may work in academia, or a university setting. –These vets may be training the vets of tomorrow! –They are also involved in research, discovering the causes of diseases and finding ways to prevent them. –They are also educators for the public.

Preventing Disease Veterinarians may work in private industry. –Many companies employ veterinarians to help ensure that their products are safe! –It is all about quality control. Can you think of any recent problems we have had with contaminated food? –Veterinarians may also be involved in lobbying or influencing policy on behalf of industry.

Preventing Disease Veterinarians may work for the government. –Government agencies such as: Food and Drug Administration US Department of Agriculture Centers for Disease Control Department of Health and Human Services State Health Agencies State Animal Health Agencies and many more employ veterinarians!

Preventing Disease Disease Eradication –When the government or animal production industry decides that it wants to get rid of a disease, it launches an eradication campaign. Diseases which have been eradicated from all or part of the US include: Classical Swine Fever, Foot and Mouth Disease, Screwworms, Texas Cattle Fever, Bovine Brucellosis, Bovine Tuberculosis Life cycle of the screwworm fly:

Preventing Disease The military also employs many vets! –And I don’t mean veterans… –Veterinarians in all branches of the military work: To make sure our troops are safe from zoonotic and foodborne diseases To care for service animals And serve as our frontline of defense against foreign and emerging diseases!

Preventing Disease Zoonotic diseases? Foodborne diseases? Foreign and emerging diseases? What does it all mean???

Preventing Disease Veterinarians may also work for public, non-profit, or non- governmental organizations. –Many vets volunteer their time and resources to work in other countries. –Organizations such as the World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Organization for Animal Health all employ veterinarians.

Preventing Disease This is an example of a veterinary team that volunteered to go to Mexico. They offered free parasite control and vaccinations.

Diagnosing Disease So what about diagnosis? –Many of the same jobs apply. –Veterinarians work to develop diagnostic tests to help us identify sick or diseased animals in a population. –This type of research is done at government, university, and private laboratories around the world.

Diagnosing Disease One example: –Cattle tuberculosis is caused by the bacterium, Mycobacterium bovis. –The tests most often used to find cattle infected with M. bovis will be positive if the animal was exposed to M. avium and M. paratuberculosis. –Dr. Janice Miller, who works for the US Department of Agriculture in Ames, IA developed a new test using PCR that can distinguish between these bacteria.

Diagnosing Disease Veterinarians are also critical in discovering and diagnosing new diseases. Can you think of any diseases that have been recently introduced into the US? –West Nile Virus, 1999 –Monkeypox, 2003

Treating Disease Veterinarians research new ways to treat diseases. For example: –Vacuum-assisted closure for treatment of a deep shell abscess and osteomyelitis in a tortoise Published in JAVMA, Oct. 15, 2007 by M. J. Adkesson, et. al.

This turtle had a bad infection following an injury to its shell. Treatment of these types of injuries is usually very long, complicated, and expensive. These veterinarians wanted to see if they could find a better way to treat this turtle. Treating Disease

Even after cleaning out the wound, it looked pretty bad. The veterinarians decided to use a vacuum-assisted closure system to help the turtle heal. The veterinarians cleaned and bandaged the wound for the first 19 days. Then they filled the wound with a special pad, covered it with plastic, and applied negative pressure with a special suction hose. The pad still had to be changed regularly.

Treating Disease After just nine days (picture A), the wound looked much better and was beginning to heal. After 55 days (Pic. B), the vacuum-assisted closure system was removed. The wound had healed so much that all it needed was a scrub once every few days to help keep it clean. The turtle recovered completely. These veterinarians wrote about their treatment in a research journal so that other veterinarians could learn about it too.

Veterinary Careers Working in a veterinary clinic is only one of the many exciting career opportunities available to veterinarians today. Now, that you know the A-Z of veterinary careers, what kind of vet do you want to be?

Any Questions?