Trends in gender, employment, salary, and debt of graduates of US veterinary medical schools and colleges.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize trends in gender, employment, starting salaries, and educational debt of graduates of US veterinary medical schools and colleges from 1988 to 2007. DESIGN: Meta-analysis. Sample Population-Veterinary medical graduates from 26 or 27 of 27 US veterinary schools and colleges from 1988 through 2007. PROCEDURES: Data were obtained from surveys published in the JAVMA. A chi2 test for trend was used to analyze trends in choices of employment and educational indebtedness for the veterinary graduate populations over time. RESULTS: The greatest changes in employment occurred in predominantly large animal practice, which attracted 10.7% of new graduates in 1989 but only 2.2% in 2007, and in advanced study, which attracted 15.2% of new graduates in 1989 and 36.8% in 2007. In 2007, 75% of graduates were women, but this gender shift was not associated with the decline in the percentage of graduates entering rural practice. From 1989 through 2007, starting salaries in private practice increased at a rate of 4.60%/y. During the same period, educational debt increased at an annual rate of 7.36%, or 60% higher than the rate of increases for starting salaries. As a result, debt at graduation increased from 1.1 times the starting salary in 1989 to 2.0 times the starting salary in 2007. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Veterinary students are now more in debt than they have ever been. This trend together with a substantial increase in the rate of interest charged for government-backed education loans create conditions for new graduates that appear unsustainable.

Veterinary medicine in the 21st century: the challenge of biosecurity.

The veterinary profession is presently challenged with developing and maintaining on-farm biosecurity protocols to protect the nation's food supply from acts of bioterrorism, from the growing threat of foreign animal diseases, and from multidrug resistance among pathogenic organisms. This challenge comes at a time when the supply of food animal veterinarians in the United States is progressively in decline, and raises the possibility that the profession is not adequately prepared to fulfill its responsibilities to the health and productivity of the US livestock and poultry populations. Causes of the decline in demand for veterinary services are discussed. They include consolidation of the food animal industries and a trend toward transferring performance of tasks traditionally carried out by veterinarians to the province of lay staff. This development potentially reduces veterinary surveillance of food animal populations. It also runs the risk of delay in recognizing and controlling serious health problems when they arise. Several remedies are proposed, including profound changes in the curriculum for educating food animal veterinarians to serve the consolidated but vulnerable livestock and poultry industries suitably. Also advocated is the initiation of training programs for herdsmen on the symptoms of foreign animal diseases, together with advice on when to call a veterinarian. Significant investment of federal or state resources will be required if these changes are to become reality.