Investment in LSU to help address national veterinarian shortage

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Officials are hoping a $2.2 million investment in the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine will help address a national shortage of veterinarians.

According to LSU, the United States is expected to have a shortage of at least 15,000 veterinarians by the end of the decade.

Through the investment money from state officials, LSU’s School of Veterinary Medicine has set a goal of nearly doubling admissions by 2024 from 120 to 200. The increase in admissions could mean the school will have an additional 800 veterinarians graduating by 2028.

Lt. Gen. Russel Honore is one of the people who said the LSU vet school is doing big things. He owns two racehorses and a parade horse named Big Red. All of the horses have received care from the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine.

“Big Red is 25 and I attribute his longevity to the care he’s gotten at LSU,” Lt. Gen. Honoré said. “Then Covid reminded us of the need for significant research capacity in vet schools. Many of the solutions that have been developed for humans really came through animal science and we know future pandemics will come from animals, just like bird flu, monkeypox, and swine flu. What starts out as animal disease can have tremendous impacts on people’s health. Without the LSU vet school, we’d be at risk.”

The LSU vet school has a graduation rate of 94%, according to officials. They added only a handful of schools in the United States have a higher graduation rate.

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