Genomics and the environment will be two of four priority areas for the School of Veterinary Medicine as it enters a period of unprecedented growth in both enrollment and facilities.
In addition to those two areas of emphasis, which parallel campuswide initiatives, the school’s new academic plan identifies public health, including food safety, and the role of animals in society, incorporating alternative medicine, as its two other priorities.
"In developing our academic plan, we considered the campus’s directions, where the veterinary profession should be heading and where we think the school can make unique contributions," said Bennie Osburn, dean of the veterinary school.
Genomics, the study of the structure and function of large groups of genes of animals, plants or microbes, is an ideal fit for the veterinary school, which has long-established strengths in genetic research, noted Osburn The school’s 45-year old Veterinary Genetics Laboratory began providing blood typing for livestock and then horses and now offers DNA typing for a variety of domestic animal species.
In addition, the veterinary school administers the campus Mouse Biology Program, which was initiated three years ago to produce and maintain genetically defined mice for studies on how genes function in the whole animal. That program was strengthened this year by a new alliance with The Jackson Laboratory of Bar Harbor, Maine, a non-profit institution and the world leader in mammalian genetics research based on mouse models. The affiliation with Jackson Laboratory has brought to campus a new facility for breeding and maintaining mouse models and promises to generate collaborative research opportunities between UC Davis and the East Coast laboratory.
"The genomics research will have many applications in veterinary medicine," Osburn said. "For example, genetic research will eventually help us determine why so many Dalmatians are deaf, why more cancers show up in certain dog breeds and why some animal species have greater disease-resistance."
And research in the area of microbial genomics will provide a better understanding of how viruses infect certain species and cause disease. As part of the genomics studies, the veterinary faculty also will be conducting research in proteomics, a new field that focuses on the proteins that are assembled by the genes.
Increased graduate student training in genomics
The school expects the new genomics initiative to increase graduate student training in this area, boosting graduate enrollment by 24 students annually.
In addition to the genomics initiative, the veterinary school is equally well positioned to move forward in research on the environment and ecosystem health, with 35 current faculty members doing research related to the environment.
"I don’t know of any other veterinary school that has the breadth of research expertise in this area that we have here at UC Davis," said Osburn. He pointed out that veterinary faculty members are studying a variety of environmental issues ranging from air quality to the effect of toxins on wild life reproduction to infectious diseases that can be passed between wildlife, livestock and humans.
As part of the environmental initiative, the school hopes to develop a master’s degree program in Environmental and Ecosystem Health that would serve graduates who already have their doctor of veterinary medicine degrees as well as graduate students from other disciplines.
"There is great interest, particularly among public agencies, in training veterinarians who understand ecosystems," Osburn said. "This would be the first program to produce what we like to call ‘ecosystem clinicians.’ "
Public health and food-safety initiative
In the school’s public health and food-safety initiative, veterinary researchers would collaborate with faculty members from the schools of medicine, law and business management to offer a master’s degree in public health. The program would provide training for students interested in careers with government agencies or food companies. An estimated 35 percent to 50 percent of the students in the program would go on for doctoral degrees in food science, comparative pathology, microbiology, pharmacology or toxicology.
And through the fourth initiative, the school will strengthen existing research efforts exploring relationships between people and their animals, known as the human-animal bond, while breaking new ground in the area of alternative veterinary medicine.
"We’re interested in better defining the importance of the relationships between humans and animals, whether they be companion animals, performance horses or wildlife," Osburn said, noting that the school already has a solid core of faculty members devoted to such research.
In the area of alternative medicine, veterinary researchers will study therapies that are still out of the mainstream of veterinary medicine, including herbal products, acupuncture and holistic medical treatments.
New Faculty Key to Implementation
The key to putting the academic plan into practice will be increasing the school’s faculty base, Osburn stressed. During the next five years the school will gain 10 new faculty positions, which may be augmented by another 10 positions, depending on faculty retirements in the school and income from private fundraising efforts.
The growth in the veterinary school faculty will be necessary not only to implement the visions of the academic plan, but also to accommodate expanding student enrollment. Currently, the school trains 460 students for the doctor of veterinary medicine degree, with 122 students in each incoming class. The size of each class will increase to 131 students as soon as facilities are available, and a UC task force has recommended eventually increasing enrollment to 150 to180 students per class.
"At the moment, we’re producing enough veterinarians to serve a state population of 16 million, but California is at 34 million people," Osburn said. "The question is, will we have the facilities here to support the training of adequate numbers of veterinarians for California’s burgeoning population?"
With the assistance of campus planners, the school has drafted a $354 million long-range facilities plan designed to accommodate expansion of both programs and enrollment, and to satisfy accreditation requirements of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
During its last accreditation review in 1998, the school received high marks in all areas except for facilities. As a result of the facilities deficiencies, the school was placed on limited accreditation and must be reviewed again after two years, rather than the normal seven years, to regain full accreditation.