July 8, 2004

by Bennie Osburn

On June 21 and 22, Tim Boosinger, Larry Heider, Lonnie King, Andy Maccabe, Keith Prasse and I along with representatives from AVMA were invited to CDC in Atlanta to explore opportunities for veterinary colleges, veterinary science departments and comparative medicine departments to participate and partner in CDC programs. The meetings were coordinated by Nina Marano, Marguerite Pappaioanou and Jim Hughes, Director, National Center for Infectious Diseases.

 

We met with Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director of CDC and discussed our initiative "Building the Human Resource Capacity", and other opportunities. She articulated her view of the importance of veterinarians as team members in public health. We heard presentations from many veterinarians at CDC on their activities with the Epidemic Intelligence Service, in environmental toxicology; animals as sentinels of environmental health events, Public Health Emergency Preparedness; environmental public health tracking; zoonoses surveillance; the Laboratory Response Network; syndromic surveillance program with Banfield and Purdue; occupational safety and health and laboratory animal training.

 

CDC has established a competitive grants program and AAVMC members are encouraged to participate in these programs. We expect to receive a preliminary notice of the call for proposals and will provide it to our members as soon as we receive it. Zoonotic diseases, food safety, occupational health, laboratory animal medicine, parasitic diseases and global health are the many areas that are important to CDC.

 

Currently there are 99 veterinarians in the Commissioned Corp with approximately 50% eligible to retire in the next two years. The projections are that there is a need for 200 veterinarians in the Corps. Training including Epidemic Intelligence Service fellowships and graduate stipends are supporting veterinarians at CDC. Thanks to Lonnie King and Charlotte Hendrix for helping arrange this opportunity for AAVMC. The reception extended to AAVMC and the enthusiasm for participating in opportunities for veterinary medicine in public health by staff at CDC was a highlight of the meeting. We'll keep you posted on future opportunities.

 

Following the CDC Meeting, Larry Heider, Lonnie King, Andy Maccabe, Keith Prasse and I stayed on in Atlanta to meet with 11 representatives from pharmaceutical, biologic and pet nutrition companies to discuss ways that AAVMC can partner with them for future externships, graduate training opportunities, support for diversity and political support for the "Building the Human Resource Capacity" initiative. They indicated that diversity is a critical issue for their businesses. They see the need to change noting with emphasis to us that diversity is essential for good business. There was also considerable support for the initiative and a meeting is being scheduled with corporate representatives for early next year to build political support for it.

View Power Point presentations from the Corporate Veterinary Medicine Meeting