Advanced Diagnostic Training for Food Animal Veterinarians and Veterinary Technicians

This proposal addresses USDA NIFA Veterinary Services Grant Program 006700 Education, Extension and Training Grants focusing on food animal veterinarians. A decline in the number of veterinarians serving the agricultural sector in rural communities poses serious problems for animal health and wellbeing, food safety, public health and producer profitability. A major contributor to this decline is failure to retain veterinarians and veterinary staff in a rural setting. The focus of this proposal is to provide access to continuing education, practical experience and accessible information on the techniques needed to perform a complete post mortem examination and selection of appropriate diagnostics in multiple production animal species. Additionally, this proposal will utilize materials provided by an existing 3-year NIFA grant (2017-2020) "Case-Based Distance Learning for Food Animal Veterinarians," Award number 2017-70024-27326, which focuses on developing and implementing a long distance educational program that provides access to information on new advances and reinforcement of key concepts in disease control and prevention.