Veterinary Medicine Essay, Research Paper

Veterinary Medicine

For my agriculture report, I chose to do a report on veterinarians. I chose this career field because I like working with animals and learning about them. While doing my report I learned more then I thought there was to learn about animals and becoming a veterinarian. I learned how long it takes to become a veterinarian, what my chances are on being accepted by a veterinary college, what veterinarians do, and much more.

Veterinary Medicine is a branch of medical science that deals with the prevention, cure, or alleviation of diseases and injuries of animals. There are about 55,000 veterinarians and of that only 15,000 or so are women. Many veterinarians work for federal, state, or local governments, inspecting food, supervising laws that protect human and animal health, or dealing with environmental problems. Many veterinarians treat all animals, but in recent years and in the densely populated areas of the country, many have limited their practice to pets.

Some specialize in the treatment of certian populations such as horses, cattle, poultry, or zoo animals. A small number of veterinarians are employed as managers of large feedlots for beef – cattle, large dairy cattle operations, and many of the increasingly large poultry farms. A few veterinarians are now becoming involved in embryo transfer work, in which fertilized eggs are removed from superior donors and transferred into the uterus of a cow of lesser genetic qualities.

A minimum of six years of study after high school graduation is usually required for a student to become a veterinarian. At least two and sometimes up to four years of college are completed before the acceptance into veterinary college. The competition is stiff for such acceptance, with usually five to ten qualified applicants for each one admitted.

Demand is increasing for food inspection by veterinarians, particulary in meat, milk, and processed foods and for the regulation of traffic in all kinds of livestock and the eradication of animal plagues. In addition, the increasingly close confinement of many farm animals requires veterinary expertise in vaccination, immunization, and particular methods of hygien.

The Meat Packing Industry is a large industry involving the slaughtering, processing, and distribution of cattle, sheep, and hogs. Meat slaughtering is another job in the veterinarian practice. It includes slaughtering of hogs, cattle, and sheep.

Animals furnish about 28 percent of the worlds total value of agricultural products. Most domesticated animals have multiple uses, for example, animals kept primarily for work also supply milk, meat, and clothing materials. The animals and thier uses are closely associated with the culture and the experience of the people who care for them.

After researching and doing this report on veterinarians, I have decided that this field is not what I am interested in doing. But I do now have a knew understanding for veterinarians and thier jobs. When I started this report I thought that there was no way that veterinarians where anywhere even closely assocated with agriculture and know I know that there was a lot that I did not know about agriculture and veterinarians.

Two references that I used are the internet and an Encyclopedia for the computer, called Microsoft Encarta.