University of Calgary, Canada, is launching a three-year veterinary programme linked closely with the faculty of medicine, a first veterinary medicine course in the Alberta province. The shortened course will be followed by a year of specialisation and is expected to place the province at the forefront of research into animal diseases and food supply safety.
“One of the biggest reasons why the programme is being set up is because of the BSE issue,” said Lyle Oberg, Alberta’s minister of learning. “If we could have had the research capability and the infrastructure in place to deal with this, there’s the potential that those billions of dollars may not have had to be spent.”
The programme is expected to produce 30 veterinarians each year and, despite being Canada’s fifth veterinary school, it will no satisfy the need for professionals in the field. The course will open research opportunities to its graduates but, above all, create vets capable of working in new areas such as food safety and public health.
