Vet crisis is statewide, national — and urgent

Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes a mix of national and local commentaries online and in print each day. (To contribute, click here.) This article is a response to Star Tribune Opinion's June 4 call for submissions on the question: "Where does Minnesota go from here?" Read the full collection of responses here.

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Recently, much-needed discussion about Minnesota's lack of readily available veterinary services has been framed primarily on geography — "it's a rural problem." ("Rural vet shortage requires solutions," July 2; "Diagnosing the farm vet shortage," July 5.) While the challenges are most acute in rural areas, there are localized shortages in all parts of our state — rural, suburban and urban. Collectively, we lack veterinarians, technicians (veterinary nurses), specialists and veterinary researchers.

Zoom out beyond Minnesota and we find that insufficient veterinary services is a national problem that affects many sectors — from private practice to academia, research and development to government — putting at great risk not just the health of the animals we care about and depend on, but our own health as well.

Veterinary medicine is a critical health service that is teetering on the brink. This multifaceted problem requires multiple solutions and participation from many organizations.

As Minnesota's only veterinary college, the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine has for decades educated and trained a majority of the state's veterinarians. About 70% of Minnesota's current veterinarians earned their degrees at the university. About two-thirds of today's graduates enter private practice, while others seek advanced training or pursue careers in industry, food safety, public health, medical research or other sectors.

For years, the university has worked to fill the gap in Minnesota's veterinary services:

Based on our current personnel and facilities capacity, we limit initial enrollment to 105 students per class at our Twin Cities campus and 20 at SDSU. Last fall, we received nearly 1,700 applications for these 125 seats. It is difficult to turn away qualified applicants.

Each year we hold just over half of the seats in our new class for residents of Minnesota and the Dakotas. Many of these graduates return home to practice veterinary medicine. In addition, some of our students from other states also stay in Minnesota.

Since 2012 our early-decision VetFAST program has encouraged students to treat food animals in rural Minnesota with a mentored program that removes a year from the typical eight-year path from a bachelor's to a doctorate of veterinary medicine degree. Students in this program receive strong industry-sponsored scholarship support.

Over the past decade, we have limited our cumulative tuition increase to less than 10%, which is no longer sustainable. Over the same period, the costs of providing our DVM education and training have grown by nearly 30%.

Minnesota's Rural Veterinarian Loan Repayment Program offers up to $75,000 to veterinarians treating food animals in rural areas. We advocated for the funding and are pleased to assist up to five alumni each year. Unfortunately, the program's narrow scope limits the number of applications received.

More needs to be done. The University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine stands ready, as we have since our founding, to be a part of the solution.

For our sake and theirs, our animals deserve a brighter health care future. The people who dedicate themselves to the veterinary profession deserve better outcomes than they're presently receiving.