Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, Vol 35, Issue 2, 199-202
DOI: 10.3138/jvme.35.2.199
Copyright © 2008 by Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges
Public-Health Training for Veterinarians |
Public Health Education at Michigan State University
Julie A. Funk•
Paul C. Bartlett
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ABSTRACT
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Many reports have highlighted the need for the veterinary profession to fill critical shortages of veterinarians in public health and food safety. Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine offers educational programs within the professional veterinary curriculum, as well as graduate degree programs, to meet these societal needs. Within the scope of the professional veterinary curriculum, educational opportunities in public health include clerkships in veterinary public health and an innovative Web-based curriculum on judicious use of antimicrobials. For graduate degree programs, Michigan State University has a memorandum of understanding with the University of Minnesota for the Master of Public Health degree and an innovative Online Professional Master of Science in Food Safety degree program. A new option available is the opportunity for veterinary students to pursue the Master of Science in Food Safety concurrently with the DVM (DVM/MS in Food Safety). These educational programs will prepare graduates to meet societal needs in public health and food safety.
Key Words: food safety • antibiotic resistance • public health • distance education
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INTRODUCTION
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The contribution of veterinary medicine in the areas of food safety, biosecurity, public health, and zoonotic disease control has never been so crucial. Increasing concerns about emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases and the growing need for interdisciplinary approaches has challenged the veterinary profession to ensure that graduate veterinarians are prepared to meet society's needs. Current estimates suggest that just to maintain the current presence of veterinarians in population health and public service, 20% of graduates each year need to pursue these career paths.1 As our food-animal industries consolidate and become vertically integrated, future generations of food-safety veterinarians must learn to collaborate more closely with their colleagues in public health to fully engage animal and human health issues across the entire spectrum of the food chain. The veterinarians of the future must learn to combine their traditional veterinary training with new competencies in biosecurity, food safety, animal science, quality control, risk management, field epidemiology, disease control, risk communication, and animal welfare.
Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine has answered this challenge by providing educational programs in the professional veterinary curriculum as well as innovative graduate degree programs to both veterinary and non-veterinary degree-holding professionals.
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PUBLIC HEALTH WITHIN THE PROFESSIONAL CURRICULUM
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Veterinary students (approximately 110–112 per class) at Michigan State University (MSU) may enroll in a variety of elective public-health courses to supplement their required courses in epidemiology and public health. Starting in 1990, a three-credit clerkship in Government and Corporate Veterinary Practice has been taught to approximately 22 students per year. This clerkship provides exposure to public-practice opportunities through field trips to the work locations of approximately 60 veterinary public-practice specialists. Additionally, many students enroll in one or more three-week field clerkship experiences with a variety of local and national public health agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the US Army, the US Air Force, the US Department of Agriculture, and the other field sites listed below.
Government and corporate veterinary clerkship activities are offered by the following sites:
- Dow Chemical (pathology, laboratory animals, environmental toxicology, epidemiology)
- Michigan Department of Agriculture (dairy inspections, animal-facility inspections)
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (pathology, research, laboratory animals, public health)
- Pfizer Animal Health (research, pathology, laboratory animals, regulatory affairs)
- MPI Research (private, non-clinical animal research; research pathology; laboratory animals; surgery)
- Veterinary Services, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), US Department of Agriculture (USDA) (disease-control programs, foreign-animal-disease programs)
- Animal Care, APHIS, USDA (inspection of Detroit Zoo)
- Food Safety Inspection Service, USDA (facility tour)
- Department of Homeland Security, US Public Health Service, and USDA (international port inspection, border with Canada, Detroit Metro Airport)
- International Veterinary Medicine (lectures and role-playing exercise)
- Department of Health and Human Services Veterinarians (USPHS, Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration)
- Animal Control (Detroit Animal Control, Capital Area Humane Society)
- Wildlife Veterinary Medicine
- Michigan Department of Public Health (avian influenza, disease surveillance, epidemiology)
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DVM/MPH COOPERATIVE PROGRAM—MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY (DVM) AND THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA (MPH)
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In 2005, 12 second- and third-year MSU veterinary students enrolled in the largely online MPH program at the University of Minnesota. By 2006, total MSU veterinary-student enrollment in this program had grown to 27. This MPH program allows the transfer of up to 14 credits from a student's DVM program; MSU has modified its course offering to facilitate the transfer of credits for what has evolved into an inter-institutional dual degree program. Most students transfer credits from their required DVM courses in epidemiology and public health. New clerkship courses were created to meet MPH requirements for field and research experiences in public health. Students who enroll in MPH courses during the summers following their first and second years of the DVM program will usually have a minimal number of online MPH courses remaining when they receive their DVM degree from MSU. Up to three weeks of summer courses are taken in Minnesota each summer, and the remainder of the program is online.
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WEB-BASED VETERINARY CURRICULUM IN THE APPROPRIATE USE OF ANTIBIOTICS
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An educational, research, and service program called Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work on the Farm has been launched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). One activity area is to partner with colleges of veterinary medicine to develop a Web-based curriculum to teach students about the public-health impact of antimicrobial resistance and the veterinarian's responsibility to curb unnecessary and wasteful use of antimicrobial agents. The overall goal of this resource is to preserve antibiotic efficacy for both humans and animals. The instructional modules acquaint the learner with the importance and nature of the developing antimicrobial resistance problem and present methods for making prudent, evidence-based decisions about antimicrobial usage. The program is primarily intended for use by veterinary students throughout the United States, but it will also be freely available to the public. Ultimately, there are plans for the Web site to be available for continuing-education credits. The Web site is designed to supplement existing courses in pharmacology, public health, and species-specific veterinary medicine. The interactive program uses audio, video, and animation to make the presentation varied and entertaining.a
The introductory module teaches the basic principles and mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance through an outbreak-investigation scenario. Subsequent modules are specific to international issues and to each of the major food-animal species. Emphasis is placed on those treatment situations in which epidemiologic evidence indicates that antimicrobial agents are often used unnecessarily or in which alternative treatment techniques or preventive procedures may be more efficacious and economical. For example, the use of historic regional antibiogram information (regarding rates of antimicrobial resistance) can aid in deciding whether antibiotic use is warranted and can also be used to select an antibiotic therapy with a low risk of fostering antimicrobial resistance among zoonotic pathogens and other bacteria that might pass antimicrobial resistance genes to human pathogens.
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THE ONLINE PROFESSIONAL MASTER OF SCIENCE IN FOOD SAFETY: THE FOOD COMPONENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH
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The Online Professional Master of Science in Food Safety (MSFS) has as its mission the development of food-safety leaders. Since the program's inception in 2002, 100 students have been accepted, with 33 graduates as of December 2007. Of all students accepted into the program, approximately 70% are employed in the food industry, while the remaining 30% are employed by government agencies. Those employed in the private sector represent more than 15 Fortune 500 companies. Ninety percent of students are US citizens; 30% of domestic students originate from Michigan, while international students reside in Antigua, Barbuda, Canada, China, Mexico, and Mozambique. Of the current students, 6% are graduate veterinarians. Based on the first 27 graduates, students take an average of three and a half years to complete the degree, which has a five-year time limit. The current attrition rate is 5%.
The development of this degree program has been described elsewhere.2 Highlights of the program include a rigorous curriculum that is offered online and is flexibly scheduled to enable working adults to maintain their professional and personal lives. This is a trans-disciplinary degree, offered by the College of Veterinary Medicine but including more than 70 faculty from many MSU colleges, other universities, industry, and government. Disciplines represented in the curriculum include toxicology, microbiology, epidemiology, packaging, law, pre-harvest food safety, food protection and defense, food-borne disease control methods, communication, and research methodology. One course (Introduction to Food Safety and Professional Development) requires students to visit the MSU campus and be "in residence" for six days; this requirement plays a critical role in developing professional networks and "school identity" among these food-safety professionals. This course is a blended course, meaning that it includes both online and on-campus educational activities; all other coursework is done entirely online. The curriculum consists of 30 semester credit hours: 21 credits in required coursework (Table 1) and nine credits of elective coursework (Table 2). The total cost of the program, based on 2007/2008 tuition rates, is $19,380.
A point of pride is the recognition the degree program received when it was chosen for the 2006 International Association for Food Protection's Innovation in Food Safety Award. Additional demonstration of the value placed on the program by employers is that, in just six years, four employers have sent additional students to the program. We are in the planning stages of a program assessment for the MSFS.b
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DVM/MSFS
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Increasingly, food-systems veterinarians may be employed by the food industry or by a government agency, in contrast to the traditional private-practice paradigm. Multidisciplinary interaction with all aspects of the production and distribution system will be an essential requirement. Although graduate veterinarians have enrolled in the MSFS, the critical need for graduate veterinarians with advanced knowledge and abilities in food safety led to an effort to increase the number of veterinarians pursuing food-safety education. In response, a combined DVM/MSFS degree program was initiated in the summer of 2007.
In this combined degree program, students pursuing the professional veterinary degree can concurrently pursue the MSFS. Nine credits of the professional DVM curriculum can be applied to the MS degree (see Tables 1 and 2). The courses that are eligible for transfer represent equivalency for one core course, VM 811 Evolution and Ecology of Foodborne Pathogens, because veterinary students have extensive coursework in infectious diseases, including those that are food-borne. The additional six credits transferable to the MS degree are elective credits: LCS (Large Animal Clinical Sciences) 690, Public Health Field Experience, and LCS 691, Public Health Research Clerkship. Both these clerkship activities are required to have a food-safety focus, which must be pre-approved. Additionally, to address specific needs of food-safety veterinarians (and to enrich the educational opportunities of all MSFS students), three new graduate courses were developed: VM 830, Food Safety Research Methods; VM 831, Foodborne Disease Epidemiology for the Professional; and VM 832, Food Safety Disease Control. Food Safety Research Methods is an introductory course in research methods using food-safety-related examples from the scientific literature. Foodborne Disease Epidemiology for the Professional is an advanced course in epidemiology that will continue the epidemiological training that veterinary students begin in their core epidemiology course in the veterinary curriculum; case examples will be based on food-safety topics. Food Safety Disease Control will cover food-safety disease-control methods from sanitation to regional disease-control/eradication approaches. The DVM/MSFS program is supported by a USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant (2006-38411-17041). The new degree program was recently approved. Advertisement and recruitment of veterinary students for the program began in fall 2007. Total tuition costs (at 2007 tuition rates) for DVM students enrolled concurrently in the MSFS program are estimated at $14,655.
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SUMMARY
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As stated in the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges Foresight Report,3 societal needs and, therefore, the veterinary profession are undergoing profound change. To meet society's needs for public-health and food-safety veterinarians, MSU has pursued innovative technologies (Web-based instructional methods, online graduate degree programs), trans-disciplinary educational models (MS in Food Safety), public–private partnerships (public-health clerkships), and inter-institutional programs (DVM/MPH degree). Continued evolution of veterinary educational models will be necessary for the profession to remain relevant to society in the areas of public health and food safety.
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Footnotes
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Julie A. Funk, DVM, MS, PhD, is Director of the Online Professional Master of Science in Food Safety and Associate Professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1302 USA. E-mail: funkj{at}cvm.msu.edu.
Paul C. Bartlett, MPH, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVPM (Epidemiology Specialty) is a professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1302 USA. E-mail: bartlett{at}cvm.msu.edu.
NOTES
The Get Smart program Web site is available through the CDC at <http://www.cdc.gov/narms/get_smart.htm>. 
The Online Professional Master of Science Web site can be accessed at <http://foodsafe.msu.edu/education.html>.
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REFERENCES
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- Hoblet KH, Maccabe AT, Heider LE. Special Report: Veterinarians in Population Health and Public Practice: Meeting Critical National Needs <http://aavmc.org/JVME_hoblet.htm>. Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, Washington, DC, 2003.
- Mather EC, McNiel PA. The Online Professional Master of Science in Food Safety degree program at Michigan State University: an innovative graduate education in food safety. J Vet Med Educ 33: 272–278, 2006.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Willis NG, Monroe FA, Potworowski JA, Halbert G, Evans BR, Smith JE, Andrews KJ, Spring L, Bradbrook A. Envisioning the future of veterinary medical education: the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges Foresight Project, final report. J Vet Med Educ 34: 1–41, 2007.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
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ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
