Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 3/15/10

The American Veterinary Medical Association said it has launched the Food Animal Veterinarian Recruitment and Retention Program to provide student loan debt forgiveness to veterinarians who commit to four years of employment in food animal veterinary medicine.

"The AVMA has been working on Capitol Hill for years to generate attention, pass legislation and fund programs that would directly address the food animal veterinarian shortage, and we are very pleased that the federal loan repayment program is seeing the light of day," AVMA CEO Dr. Ron DeHaven said in news release. "But we also know that we can't rely solely on government funding."

AVMA's new program complements USDA's recently announced Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program, which will soon be accepting applications.

AVMA says more than half of all food animal veterinarians are more than 50 years old and nearing retirement. Meanwhile, only 15 percent or so of veterinary school graduates are pursuing that career path. Most of them have an average of $120,000 in school debt. At that rate, according to recent studies, the supply of veterinarians working in food safety will fall shot by 4 percent to 5 percent each year through 2016.

"We're facing an impending crisis, and action is required to make sure that our country has enough of these professionals working for the benefit of society," DeHaven said.

The new AVMA program seeks to support about 50 rural food animal veterinarians over the next five years by providing total payments for each practitioner up to $100,000 that can be applied to student loan debt.

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