Transcript Modern Careers in Veterinary Medicine

Modern Careers in Veterinary
Medicine
Jobs of a different stripe…
What do veterinarians do?
• Prevent disease
• Diagnose disease
• Treat disease
The Traditional Veterinary
• Works in a clinic
• Keeps our pets
healthy
– Vaccinations
– Surgery
• But there is SO
much more!
The Modern Veterinarian
• More career options than ever
• Still centers around the prevention,
diagnosis, and treatment of disease
Preventing Disease
• An ounce of prevention is worth….
– A pound of cure!
• Veterinarians work to prevent
disease in both animals and people
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Academia
Government
Private industry
Non-profits
Academia
• University settings
– Training the vets of tomorrow
– Research - discovering the causes
and prevention of disease
– Educate the public
Private Industry
• Employ veterinarians
to ensure the safety of
products
– Quality control
• contaminated food
issues
– Lobbying or
influencing policy on
behalf of industry
Government Agencies
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Food and Drug Administration
US Department of Agriculture
Centers for Disease Control
Department of Health & Human Services
State Health Agencies
State Animal Health Agencies
Government Agencies
• Disease eradication programs
– Reduction of an infectious disease in the
global host population to zero
• Diseases eradicated from all or part of
the US: Classical Swine Fever, Foot and Mouth
Disease, Screwworms, Texas Cattle Fever,
Bovine Brucellosis, Bovine Tuberculosis
Military
• Protect troops from zoonotic and
foodborne diseases
• Care for service animals
• Frontline of defense against foreign
and emerging diseases
Preventing Disease
• Zoonotic diseases?
• Foodborne diseases?
• Foreign and
emerging diseases?
• What does it all
mean???
Volunteerism
• Public, non-profit, or nongovernmental organizations.
– Volunteer time and resources to
work in other countries
– World Health Organization, Food and
Agriculture Organization, and the
World Organization for Animal Health
Volunteerism
Veterinarians that
volunteered to go to Mexico.
They offered free parasite
control and vaccinations.
Diagnosing Disease
• Develop diagnostic tests to help
identify sick or diseased animals in a
population
• Research is done at government,
university, and private laboratories
around the world
Example: Diagnosing
Disease
• Cattle tuberculosis - caused by the
bacterium, Mycobacterium bovis
• Tests to find cattle infected with M.
bovis also test positive from exposure to
M. avium and M. paratuberculosis.
• Dr. Janice Miller, US Department of
Agriculture, developed a new test using
PCR that can distinguish between these
bacteria.
Diagnosing Disease
• Veterinarians are 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
– Swine Flu (H1N1), 2009
Treating Disease
• Veterinarians research new ways
to treat diseases
– 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.
Treating Disease
• Severe infection following an injury
to the shell
• Treatment is usually very long,
complicated, and expensive
• Veterinarians wanted to 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.
Beyond Vet School
• Working as a veterinarian is only
one of the many exciting career
opportunities available in
veterinary science today.
– Veterinary technicians
– Research assistants
– Business administration
Veterinary Technician
• Work under the supervision of a
licensed veterinarian to treat or to
help veterinarians diagnose the
illnesses and injuries of animals
The Career Field
Food animal
Safety clinics
Small and large
Disaster
and
emergency
response
Research
and
laboratory
settings
Educational
setting
Animal
shelters
rescue
organizations
Exotic
andor
zoo
animals
Specialization
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Anesthesia
Surgical
Internal medicine
Dental
Behavior
Emergency & critical care
Zoo
Equine
Clinical practice
Nutrition
Any Questions?