Grant Looking to Help Increase Number of Farm Veterinarians

A new competitive grant from the USDA is hoping to increase the number of veterinarians that can work on large farm animals.

Sonny Ramaswamy said even though there has been an increase in pet hospitals and clinics…

“We’ve had a very significant shortage of veterinarians practicing on large animals, farm animals I should say.”

The Veterinary Services Grant program is designed to bring more of those students who want to work on dogs, cats, rabbits and the like, and Ramaswamy said they want to show them why they should work with farm animals.

“Really it’s incumbent on us to provide the value proposition; what is the value proposition for somebody to go into a large animal practice.”

The $2.4 million grant is for programs that could include special training or other programs that can help speed up the progress to get people to commit to farm animal veterinary options.