By Marshall Griffin, KWMU
10/5/07 – Governor Matt Blunt wants to spend half a million dollars next year on loans for students wanting to become large animal veterinarians.
Earlier this year, lawmakers passed a program to address a critical shortage of veterinarians trained to care for cattle, horses, and other large animals.
Blunt has announced he'll earmark $500,000 for the program in next year's budget, which would fully fund it.
"A lot of veterinary students have started to shift into companion animals, and that's fine and great...I can understand why they do that...it's a lucrative field, it's an important field, but we also need people that meet our large animal veterinary needs if agriculture is going to remain a dynamic part of our state's economy," Blunt said.
The program is expected to have strong legislative support next year.
Ronald Cott is Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri - Columbia. He calls it a very positive step forward.
"Whether that's going to be enough money depends on whether the small number of new graduates that go back into this program can serve the underserved areas well enough," Cott said.
Cott expects the large animal veterinary program to have up to six students a year enrolled in classes or applying to get in.