Lack of livestock vets a matter of food safety
Posted:
First thing on a recent Friday morning, veterinarian Alquin
Heinnickel drove to a farm north of Clarksburg, Indiana
County, to perform surgery on a cow. He followed that with three hours for a pregnancy check of a
herd of dairy cows near Homer City. Then it was on to New Florence for a sick horse, followed by
a drive to Export to check on a baby alpaca. No wonder the Hempfield man logged 35,000 miles last year on
the pickup that takes him to barns across four counties in
the icy cold of winter and the blazing heat of summer. And it's no wonder there's a nationwide shortage of
livestock veterinarians that has local farmers worried.
Experts are predicting a 13 percent increase in the demand
for "food supply" veterinarians by 2016, but a 4 percent to
5 percent shortage in those willing to take the jobs, said
Michael San Filippo, spokesman for the American Veterinary
Medical Association. The trend reflects where up-and-coming veterinarians are
growing up -- in cities or suburbs rather than on farms, San
Filippo said. Small animal practices tend to be more
lucrative since those veterinarians can see more clients in
a day than can their counterparts who must drive from farm
to farm.
Only about 10 percent of veterinary school graduates are choosing to work with livestock, and that could lead to problems, San Filippo said. "It's a matter of the safety of our food, the safety of the country," he said. "There's a lot of concern about disease being spread, whether it's naturally or something that might be spread maliciously. If something's not picked up on, that can cause a lot of damage."
