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

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?