Education

Davis, Calif. -- No one knows when and where the next global human pandemic will occur, but a government foreign-aid agency expects it to start as an animal disease and is paying the UC-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine to help find it.

Oklahoma City -- City council members voted unanimously to skip the landfill and give animals euthanized at the Oklahoma City Animal Shelter to Oklahoma State University?s (OSU) veterinary college for use in teaching students and technicians.

Schaumburg, Ill. -- The American Veterinary Medical Association will reintroduce its enhanced online continuing-education Web site next month.

Baton Rouge, La. -- The Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine is the recipient of eight new grants, totaling $1.48 million, from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Davis, Calif. -- Frank LaBonte, MBA, and fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, is the new administrator of the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at UC-Davis.

Hartford, Conn. -- Starting in 2011, Connecticut veterinarians will have to earn 24 continuing education credits every two years, according to the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Association.

Baton Rouge -- The Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine?s Equine Medication Surveillance Laboratory (EMSL) will be conducting drug tests for all Louisiana racehorses for another three years.

Ithaca, N.Y. -- A reproductive biologist at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine is the first veterinarian to receive the National Institutes of Health's Pioneer Award, which provides a five-year, $2.5 million research grant.

Athens, Ga. -- A symposium on veterinary translational medicine research will be held Oct. 29 at the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Pomona, Calif. -- Researchers at Western University?s College of Veterinary Medicine landed a $100,000 grant to work on improvements to captive endangered species? breeding programs.

Schaumberg, Ill. -- The American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF) and Pfizer Animal Health are partnering to offer a new annual scholarship program that will dole out $2 million to veterinary students by 2012.

Grafton, Mass. - After months of planning for the worst of budget cuts, Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is celebrating the Legislature's move to earmark $2.5 million for the school next year.

Antigua, West Indies - In a first-of-its-kind agreement with a stateside veterinary college, a new offshore veterinary school offers students the chance to transfer directly into and graduated from an accredited U.S. program.

North Grafton, Mass. -- A new master of science in conservation medicine degree is under development at Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

Fort Collins, Colo. -- The new Diagnostic Medicine Center at Colorado State University is now operational, enabling the university to help monitor the health of animals and wildlife in the state and research new approaches to disease intervention and prevention.

North Grafton, Mass. -- A new six-stall equine isolation ward at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University triples the capacity for patients at the infectious-disease unit.

Student debt and starting salaries are up, but new DVMs are still opting to stay in the classroom longer.

There are many new incentives to encourage veterinary students to consider careers in large-animal medicine or to work in underserved rural areas.

Calgary, Alberta -- The University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) will hold an open house Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. for the public to tour its new Clinical Skills Building on Spy Hill Campus. The facility opens to veterinary students in September.

Gainesville, Fla. -- A two-day conference for shelter veterinarians, directors, technicians and volunteers, sponsored by the University of Florida, will be held Oct. 23-24 at the Paramount Plaza Hotel in Gainesville.

Antigua, West Indies -- American University of Antigua, a 5-year-old human medical college, announced this week that it will open a new veterinary college in January with an exclusive partnership with the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine for clinical training.

East Lansing, Mich. -- There's a new equine medicine residency at Michigan State University (MSU), thanks to an endowment from an alumni couple.

Ames, Iowa -- Researchers at the Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine working on developing flu vaccines for swine landed a state grant for nearly $150,000, and other Iowa State veterinary researchers will receive nearly $70,000.

Baton Rouge, La. -- The Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine was granted $11.1 million from the National Center for Research Resources to continue its infectious-disease research.

St. Paul, Minn. -- An experimental procedure to treat a dog with brain cancer that remains successful a year later has earned the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine funding to treat more dogs through clinical trials.

Manhattan, Kan. -- A veterinary professor and fellow researchers at Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine are conducting studies into the characteristics of the pandemic H1N1 flu virus and developing better detection methods.

Hartford, Conn. -- Connecticut veterinarians are now required by law to obtain at least 24 hours of continuing education every two years.

Columbia, Mo. -- A $1 million pledge to establish two scholarships at the University of Missouri?s College of Veterinary Medicine has been made by a Missouri couple whose dogs were treated at the school.

St. Kitts, West Indies - Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine has joined a growing list of veterinary colleges, including those at Tufts and Oklahoma State that no longer perform terminal surgeries.