The Check's in the Mail

By: Lana Chumney

Texas A&M University, Class of 2011

In the summer, just before I started vet school, I went home to visit my parents for the weekend.  They owned a small family operated dairy, and by family operated, I mean anyone who happened to be around when the work was taking place.  This particular weekend, my neighbor was having an appreciation party for the customers at his mechanic shop.  He had bar-b-q and even a band with dancing.  My parents were still in the hay field working and unable to attend so, being the ever wonderful daughter that I am, I thought it might be nice to take them some food. 

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USDA accepting applications for veterinary loan repayment program

A federal notice has gone out requesting applications for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP), which will provide up to $25,000 of student loan debt relief per year for a minimum of three-years service in designated shortage areas across the United States.

The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), which is running the program, also released maps of state- and federally-designated shortage areas on its website, along with eligibility requirements, FAQs and application forms.

Applications will be accepted until June 30, with awards being offered by September 30.

Dr. Kevin Dajka, director of the Membership and Field Services Division at the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), says the VMLRP is a great opportunity for recent veterinary school graduates to pay off a substantial portion of their student debt, while providing a much-needed boost to critically underserved areas of veterinary medicine.

"Graduates coming out of veterinary school are carrying about $130,000 in educational debt," said Dr. Dajka. "The VMLRP will help ease this financial burden for a number of veterinarians, while encouraging them to practice in areas of the country and profession that are in desperate need of veterinary help, such as rural America and food supply veterinary medicine."

AVMA leaders, who have spent the better part of the last decade championing this program and its funding, are thrilled that federal debt relief will soon be made available for veterinarians working, or willing to work, in underserved areas.

"This is the culmination of years of effort by America's veterinarians and by the USDA to get this program launched," said Dr. W. Ron DeHaven, CEO of the AVMA. "The AVMA is committed to continue working with NIFA to ensure the program is successfully implemented, and we will continue to advocate for annual funding for this program and to make the program tax exempt."

For more information, contact Michael San Filippo, AVMA media relations assistant, at 847-285-6687 (office), 847-732-6194 (cell).

Saving Plastic Horses (and hopefully real ones too)

The delegates in your SAVMA House of Delegates work hard to help bring new and interesting programs to your schools. Here is an example of that work in action. Every year, the Education and Licensure Committee puts on a grant competition to help fund programs that cover topics not otherwise covered in the veterinary curriculum. One of the winners this year was Large Animal Technical Rescue Team at University of Florida. You can read about the event that they put on and check out the cool pictures. If you want to know more about what opportunities are available for funding through SAVMA, click the "contests and awards" link on the right.

Article by: Jaimie Miller

Class of 2012, University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine

The UF College of Veterinary Medicine’s Large Animal Technical Rescue Team (a component of its disaster response team “VETS”), DVM students from the Public Health and Service Club (PHSC), and a Florida Veterinary Reserve Corps veterinarian, trained with 35 firefighters from St. Johns County and Clay County Technical Rescue Teams over the April 2-4 weekend at the Star 4 Ranch.

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That's Pathognomonic

By: Lana Chumney

Texas A&M University, Class of 2011

In our first year curriculum of vet school, we have a class called clinical correlates.  In this class we tour different production facilities to get a feel of how livestock are raised and what the producers, that will soon be our clients, do everyday.  This particular day we were touring the Beef Production Center.  It was cold and windy and was one of the few days in vet school that I can remember wishing I was sitting in a classroom. 

While looking at some cattle, our professor started quizzing us on Redwater Disease (Bacillary Hemoglobinuria).  He asked, “Now what sign is virtually pathognomonic for this disease?”  As our first year minds were still swarming with terms from anatomy and histology, we were perplexed.  After several seconds, he asked, “Does everyone know what pathognomonic means?”  I nodded a yes with the rest of my classmates.  Of course I knew this term; it seemed that I had heard it a million times just that week in microbiology.  I was also a master of root words, thanks to our anatomy class.  To my surprise his next question was, “Lana, please tell us what that means!”  As I flipped through my mental rolodex of medical terms I thought, “Patho= pathology.”  Yes, that’s correct.  And “pneumo = lung”.  This is too easy.  “Of course Dr. Smith, pathognomonic means pathology of the lungs.”  After learning the correct definition, I decided that this might just be pathognomonic of failure of correlates class!

Pigs...In...Space! (Oops, I meant Nebraska!)

By: Ruth West

Class of 2011, University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine

I am a junior at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine with an interest in swine medicine. UF does operate a small swine unit just off of campus, where I lived and worked for a year, yet I was very interested in seeing some large operation swine units and finding out for myself what working as a food animal veterinarian was all about.

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