South Africa Field Experience

y: Michael Lovasz

Class of 2012, Ross University

Did you know that Echinococcus is commonly found in the fur of the leopard?  I do now. This is just one of the many interesting facts that I learned while doing a two week externship in South Africa last April. A group of four of us were about to start our third year of Veterinary School and we were very eager to apply what we already knew, or believed we knew, to the field.

In our first week we had the rare opportunity to assist in Cape buffalo herd management in the Red Zone. These animals were either infected or acting as a buffer zone to animals infected with Foot and Mouth Disease, Tuberculosis, Brucellosis, and Corridor Disease (Theileria parva). Tuberculosis is a huge concern in South Africa because it affects populations throughout the ecosystem. It effects the immunocompromised humans, which is an immediate concern, and tuberculosis has also decimated the lion population.  The value of a disease-free buffalo is about ten times greater than an infected one. While the story of tuberculosis in buffalo, lions and man is interesting, this article is going to focus on my time with leopards, and their story is an unfortunate and sad one.

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Costa Rica: It’s more than just the Rain Forest

By: Lana Chumney

Class of 2011, Texas A&M University

During the Christmas break of my first year of vet school, I traveled to Costa Rica for an International Veterinary / Animal Science program. Our group consisted of twelve veterinary students from Texas A&M and the Ohio State University. Proyecto Asis is a wildlife refuge located in Ciudad Quesada. For two weeks we stayed with host families, most of whom spoke only Spanish. While I am not fluent in Spanish, my vocabulary improved substantially even in two weeks of being immersed in the language.

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The Toilet Blog

By: Joy Fuhrman

Class of 2012, Colorado State University 

In 2006, my husband Greg and I were fortunate to do some international travelling.  To keep our family and friends up to date with our experiences, we set up a website to which we posted pictures and wrote blogs.  This blog, written while we were in Europe, is as much fun to read as it was to write.  Hope you enjoy!

This morning I asked Greg if it would be totally inappropriate for me to post a blog discussing the European toilets.  There, I said it!  TOILET!!!  Not bathroom or restroom or powder room.  Toilet! Aseos, toilettes, servizi or simply, WC.  For those of you who disapprove of this dirty subject, please forgive me, but my own curiosity (not to mention that of many I know) has compelled me to write this analysis of the good, the bad and the ugly that Europe has to offer.

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Veterinary Science in Tamil Nadu, India

By: Jennifer Eberly

Class of 2012, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine

I am a third year food animal veterinary student at Virginia Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, and this summer I had the opportunity to spend 6 weeks in India on an infectious diseases externship. It was a wonderful, eye-opening  (and sweltering!) experience, and I could not begin to detail all of my experiences in one short entry. I would just like to describe two of my experiences however, one negative and one positive, because I feel they typify the best and worst of my experience with veterinary science in India.

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Africa and Honduras, all in one Summer

By: Tamaya Trejo

Colorado State University

As a student you tend to forget that there is a world outside of veterinary school. In the summer of 2010, I took two trips to Zambia, Africa and Agalta Valley, Honduras through Christian Veterinary Missions. We spayed/neutered dogs and cats, castrated horses, consulted farmers on the most prevalent diseases in their herds, gave small animal rabies vaccinations, and dewormed both small and large animals. These trips were some of the best professionally relevant experiences of my life.

My travels overseas helped me understand the leadership role of a veterinarian in a foreign country. The veterinarian leading the team needs to be a great communicator. The Africa trip consisted of 6 people while the Honduras trip consisted of 14 people. Since we came from all over the states, the first time we saw each other was at the airport. All of our communication was conducted over emails and telephone. We had local contacts in both Africa and Honduras that organized our transportation, meals, and translation needs. Our team leader was in communication with the local contact before the trip which helped us prepare for the animal issues we took care of, and also helped us get an idea of what supplies to bring in our suitcases.

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