Iowa State University will help train University of Nebraska students to become veterinarians. I-S-U Veterinary College Dean John Thomson says the two states have a big percentage of the livestock raised in this country, and there’s a big unfilled demand for large-animal veterinarians. Thomson says after taking proposals from a dozen schools, Nebraska chose Iowa as its new educational partner. I-S-U’s accepted 25 Nebraska students into the vet-med program now, and he says they’re excited about it. Thomson says there are a lot of reasons why it doesn’t make sense for Nebraska to start up its own veterinary school. He says it’s a matter of supply and demand, and in the past when it’s been looked at the cooperative agreement’s looked good. With resources scarce, he says it makes sense to regionalize programs between states and Thomson thinks the program’s higher quality than trying to start up another one in the neighboring state. Nebraska students will study for their first two years at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, then come to Ames for their next two years at the ISU College of Veterinary Medicine. Thomson says the University of Nebraska has health scientists, vets and researchers, and he says this shared program will let U-N-L strengthen its own program and add more scientists and diagnosticians. Thomson says never in the history of the profession, has there been so much demand for different kinds of veterinary professionals, in so many areas. We need scientists and researchers in veterinary medicine, specialists like in human medicine, and food-supply veterinarians. There are also public-service jobs, inspectors, regulators and public-health veterinarians) Nebraska’s not ready yet, so the first shared class, in fall 2005, will spend all four years at Iowa State, and later classes will begin at Nebraska and spend two years in Lincoln before transferring to Ames. For details and more answers on how the shared veterinary program will work, surf to the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. (http://ianrnews.unl.edu/timelyTopics/vetschool.html#02 )
