As you know, the profession of veterinary medicine has reached a position of great importance to the health and economy of the United States. Without highly educated doctors of veterinary medicine, this country could not safeguard the purity of food which goes to civilians and to the armed forces. If the number of veterinarians becomes insufficient, the loss of livestock and poultry through disease and malnutrition would seriously affect the economy of the nation. A lack of veterinarians would also jeopardize the efficient operation of the U.S. Public Health Service, the Federal Drug Administration, and the Agricultural Research Service. It would also endanger the critical research being conducted in medical schools, veterinary schools, governmental research institutes, and in pharmaceutical companies. It is essential that the enrollment of students in veterinary medical colleges be doubled as soon as possible. Funds for building additions and replacements must be made available. Since the services of the veterinary profession are needed throughout the United States, it is unfair to assume that 18 states will continue to provide all the funds for veterinary medical education. The federal government should assume its share of this cost by providing funds for educational facilities. I respectfully submit that the Subcommittee on Public Health and Welfare will do this nation a great service by approving of the passage of bills which provide for the funding of veterinary medical education facilities. Sincerely yours, GEORGE C. CHRISTENSEN, Vice President for Academic Affairs. Mr. ANDREWS. A letter from Dean Ralph L. Kitchell, Iowa State University. (The letter referred to follows:) Hon. JOHN JARMAN, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY Subcommittee on Public Health and Welfare, DEAR MR. JARMAN: It is our understanding that your subcommittee will soon be conducting hearings on veterinary medical facilities bills. The purpose of this letter is to solicit your support for these bills as there are great needs for additional facilities to permit increasing the numbers of veterinarians graduating each year. To those of us charged with anticipating needs the tremendous interest of young people in veterinary medicine is truly amazing. Just as striking are the many requests we get from a wide variety of sources for information about where can they procure a veterinarian who would be available to meet a need. This ever increasing demand is gratifying to educators as is indicates that our principle product, the graduating veterinarian, is being trained satisfactorily because his performance encourages society to want additional veterinarians. The tremendous demand for veterinarians is due in part, that, like physicians, veterinarians are completely trained in medicine. This total training in medicine permits us to make contributions to society through a wide range of services. The College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University is the oldest veterinary medical college in the United States. Traditionally, Iowa State has exported a large number of its graduates to other states. We have been more concerned that the the sons and daughters of Iowa residents have a reasonable chance of becoming members of the veterinary medical profession than in just simply supplying only the needs of the state of Iowa for veterinary services. Approximately one-fourth of our students admitted each year are not residents of Iowa. Presently, so many are applying for admission to our veterinary medical college that we, in my opinion, are not offering Iowa residents a reasonable opportunity to have their sons and daughters educated in veterinary medicine. It is becoming increasingly difficult for us to help meet the needs of other states. It is for these reasons, and for many more, that the federal government should define the needs of veterinary medical colleges for facilities as a federal concern and share with the various states the costs of educating veterinarians to meet the needs of the entire nation. Iowa State will continue to do all it can towards meeting these needs. If the federal government assists the state of Iowa by helping build additional facilities, we can then naturally expand our teaching activities and accept more students especially students from states which do not have veterinary medical colleges. Sincerely yours, RALPH L. KITCHELL, Dean. Mr. ANDREWS. A statement by Mr. George C. Poppensiek, dean, New York State Veterinary College, Cornell University. (The statement referred to follows:) STATEMENT OF GEORGE C. POPPEN SIEK, DEAN, NEW YORK STATE The New York State Veterinary College at Cornell University hereby affirms its wholehearted appreciation and support for the Veterinary Education Facilities Act currently under consideration: The Leggett Bill, H.R. 490, and other related legislation which will help to provide expanded and improved facilities for education in our profession. We are gratified to recall that this committee has already demonstrated its concern for progress in the paramedical sciences by authorizing the Health Professions Education Assistance Amendment of 1965 and providing $200,000,000 for Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Osteopathy, Optometry and Podiatry. We are confident that the corresponding needs and potentialities in Veterinary Medicine will be reviewed with equal thoughtfulness and that legislative support will be forthcoming. We envision the realm of Health, Education and Welfare as being a wheel in which several strong spokes are needed for maximum efficiency. The wheel spoke labeled "Veterinary Medicine" fills the large gap between the spokes of “Agriculture" and "Human Medicine," but it needs the lengthening and strengthening which Congress is now in a position to offer. For reasons obvious and meritorious, Human Medicine has traditionally enjoyed substantial federal assistance. Likewise, agriculture has been represented on the President's Cabinet, with a huge governmental agency to minister to its needs. It is understandable, from an historical viewpoint, how this has come to be. Agriculture and Human Medicine "came of age" at an earlier period than Veterinary Medicine and thereby won separate identity and strong monetary support from the government. However, the present-day realities are that veterinary science has become a highly sophisticated discipline and an indispensable part of the nation's program in health and research. As is usually the case, reputation has lagged behind performance; thus the layman's mental image and comprehension of veterinary medicine is apt to be outdated by several decades of progress. Fortunately, the scientific community is sensitive and alert to the emergence of veterinary science as an invaluable member of the team. Signs of the times would include the following: 1. Hundreds of research projects are being carried on in the nation's eighteen veterinary colleges under governmental sponsorship. Our college alone has 45 such projects with annual support in excess of $1,800,000. 2. Many of the federally sponsored projects are initiated by governmental agencies which request the colleges to explore specified areas. Within the past two years, for example, Cornell's Veterinary College was approached by the National Cancer Institute to conduct an investigation of feline leukemia with funding of $100,000 per annum. We have also accepted a request from the United States Department of Agriculture to explore lymphosarcoma (cancer) in cows with the USDA contributing $50,000 annually. 3. The Communicable Disease Center of the United States Public Health Service has a large and growing veterinary division concentrating on diseases of animals transmissible to man. 4. Over 60% of the medical colleges in the United States now have veterinarians on their staffs. It would seem appropriate to remind this committee of the basic ways in which the veterinarians of the United States are contributing to the nation's health, well-being and prosperity: Nutrition. Fifty percent of the food products consumed in the country are derived from animals in meat and dairy products. That the animals survive illness and give forth healthful produce is part of the veterinarian's responsibility. The fact that the livestock population (currently 200,000,000) has always exceeded the human population is suggestive as far as future need for more animals and increased veterinary service. Economy. The value of the livestock in America today exceeds $50 billion. When one considers the ancillary and derivative occupations associated with livestock (the clothing industry, for example) the cataclysmic possibilities of rampant animal disease become apparent. The aforementioned statistics, incidentally, do not include poultry-an industry which produces four billion dollars annually and is the chief source of livelihood and income in eight of our fifty States. Avian (poultry) diseases are taught, treated, and controlled by the veterinary profession. Disease control.-The maintaining of a healthy animal population is not merely an end in itself; for there are more than 200 infectious and contagious sicknesses which can be transmitted from animals to man (and vice versa). Human cripplers (tuberculosis, brucellosis, psittacosis) and outright killers (anthrax) have been under the veterinarian's surveillance and control for decades and have steadily declined in incidence in this country. Comparative medicine.-Apart from diseases transmitted from animals to man, there are organic disorders (cardiovascular disease, malignant tumors, diabetes) which appear in both categories and which can be better attacked in man as they are observed and understood in animals. Now the veterinarian is dedicated to preserving the life and comfort of his animal patients. However, he shares the values of the American community which place human life infinitely higher than animal life. Therefore he is willing, under humane circumstances, to explore and even induce certain unsolved diseases into lower species for study purposes. Moreover, he is able to raise laboratory animals under controlled circumstances (genetic inbreeding, etc.) which, for sound moral reasons, would never be considered among human beings. Companion animals.-We would be remiss if we neglected to mention the treatment of dogs, cats, light horses and other companion animals whose health is in the hands of our professional practitioners. In terms of human survival, it might be said that non-productive creatures were a luxury. But the United States has been blessed with a standard of living and a way of life which is far beyond mere survival. And to the 30,000,000 American families with household pets the availability of veterinary service is well-nigh essential. Mr. ANDREWS. A statement by Dr. C. L. Campbell, director of the division of animal industry, department of agriculture, Florida. (The statement referred to follows:) STATEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES LIVESTOCK SANITARY ASSOCIATION Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am Dr. C. L. Campbell, Director of the Division of Animal Industry of the Florida Department of Agriculture, as well as State Veterinarian of Florida, and am presenting this statement today as President of and spokesman for the United States Livestock Sanitary Association in presenting our views concerning the needs for increased veterinary medical teaching facilities. These statements are made in support of H.R. 490, H.R. 3348, H.R. 11205, and H. R. 14220. Since the first veterinary college was established in the United States in 1854, our profession has grown to the stature of a highly diversified profession numbering more than 24,000 members in North America. As scientific advancements have occurred within the profession and its members have increased in numbers, the affairs of veterinary medicine have become increasingly complex. The profession today has many facets. Not only are veterinarians actively engaged in diagnosis, treatment and control of a broad spectrum of diseases among many species of animals, but they are also valued and respected members of the nation's military, research, and public health teams. In that field with which the majority of the members of the United States Livestock Sanitary Association are engaged, that of regulatory veterinary medicine and public service, approximately one-third of the nation's veterinarians are involved. Based upon current and projected requirements, it has been estimated that by 1980, 13,000 veterinarians will be needed in the field of public service. History has repeatedly shown that a nation that cannot feed itself, can no longer remain strong and independent. History has repeatedly shown that live-stock diseases uncontrolled can and will destroy a nation's source of food. History has repeatedly shown that there is only one way to combat, control or eradicate livestock diseases and that is by application of sound veterinary medical principles by skilled veterinary medical scientists. We can report with pride that livestock health in these United States is good. As a direct result of this livestock health status we can, again with pride, report that the food supply of animal origin is abundant, wholesome, safe and nutritious. We know this did not "just happen." This most important, most favorable situation could not have been possible without the control of livestock diseases. The challenge to those given the responsibility to keep it this way is great, is vital to the health of the nation, and is increasingly complex. We have been and are now facing the grim reality that there are inadequate numbers of veterinarians available to safeguard this nation's source of food and to assure a safe food supply. The prospect for the next twenty years unless immediately corrected is that the situation will become most critical. It has been reliably estimated that the United States will need at least 47,000 veterinarians by 1980, approximately twice the present number. Utilizing present educational facilities to a maximum would still leave a shortage of 7,000 to 8,000 by 1980. This nation cannot afford the risk of such a shortage.1 The importance of the modern veterinarian was very well expressed by the present Vice President of the United States when, on December 18, 1963, in introducing the Veterinary Medical Educational Facilities Construction Act of 1964, the then Senator Hubert H. Humphrey made the following statements: "Today's veterinarian spends six to eight years in acquiring his education; two years of minimum pre-veterinary work, and four years in colleges and schools of veterinary medicine. Today's veterinarian serves the human population. I emphasize, serves man himself, in four broad areas. First. Removal of animal reservoirs of infection to man through the eradication and control of those many diseases which are transmissible to man. Second. Development of preventives or treatments for animals that can be adapted for use in human medicine. Third. Supervising programs in food hygiene that protect the consumer against food-borne diseases. Fourth. Participating in the basic medical sciences in studying disease processes in animals, especially analogous or similar to those in man.” An excellent example of the reduction of a most insidious disease transmissible from animal to man is that of tuberculosis in cattle. The incidence of tuberculosis in cattle has been reduced from 5 per cent in 1917 to 0.1 per cent in 1965. In 1917, well over 2,000 cattle per 100,000 were condemned under the federal meat inspection program because of tuberculosis. In 1964, less than 2 cattle per 100,000 were condemned for this reason. The death rate for tuberculosis in man in 1917 was 125 per 100,000. In 1964, it was a little over 5 per 100,000. Although the reduction of tuberculosis in cattle is not solely responsible for the decline of the disease in man, it has played a major role. The joint efforts of government veterinarians and veterinary practitioners have been responsible for the near elimination of human extrapulmonary and pulmonary tuberculosis of bovine origin from most of North America. This nation cannot afford to be second-rate either in numbers or in the quality of its veterinarians in future years. For us to remain strong we must maintain a healthy status. Such a status is dependent to a great extent upon today's veterinarian in the role that he plays with the nation's livestock population. I respectfully submit that this most important need should receive the most conscientious consideration of your Committee. Mr. ANDREWS. A statement by Dr. T. S. Williams, dean, School of Veterinary Medicine, Tuskegee Institute. 1 Excerpt from Presidential address made by Dr. J. W. Safford at the 69th Annual meeting of the United States Livestock Sanitary Association, Lansing, Michigan, October 27, 1965. 63-316-66- -3 (The statement referred to follows:) STATEMENT OF DR. T. S. WILLIAMS, DEAN, SCHOOL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE, TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE The broad scope of veterinary medicine demands educational facilities far in excess of those now in existence, if we are to meet the challenge to educate the veterinarians this country will need by 1980. Reliable estimates have been made to indicate that our nation will need approximately twice the present number of veterinarians by 1980. Existing facilities of the veterinary medical schools of this nation simply will not be adequate to provide the number of veterinarians needed. Funds are not now available, through existing channels for our veterinary schools, to provide the additional facilities needed to train the increased number of students to meet the need in the years ahead. This nation cannot hope to fulfill its true potential for maximum scientific and medical advancement without increasing the number of trained scientific personnel in this vital profession. The needs for qualified trained veterinary personnel are numerous in every facet of the broad field of veterinary medicine. This need is but a part of the general demands for trained personnel needed for the health related sciences, but the expanding horizons of the field of veterinary medicine are creating new vistas which simply compound the existing shortage of veterinary personnel. The combined activities of teaching, research, and other related professional activities of the veterinary profession, are difficult, if not actually impossible to separate from those of human medicine. Unfortunately too few of our citizens fully recognize the relationships and contributions of the veterinary profession to public health. Each of the professions of the "healing arts" share the responsibilities for safe guarding the health of the Nation's public. Veterinary medicine has a real responsibility to the nation's public in that it safe guards the health of the nation's animal population. Apart from this primary function, the present concept of veterinary medicine places the health of every living being within the scope of its broad range of professional activities. The full economic significance of the veterinary profession to our nation should not be minimized. Our veterinary practitioners constitute the first line of defense against disease to our ever-expanding livestock industry. The cooperative efforts of veterinarians in both Federal and State Governments have accomplished signal advances in the control of livestock diseases which threaten not only the health of our livestock, but our nation's health as well. One of the most exciting chapters in our national history is the story of the successful eradication of challenging livestock diseases by veterinarians of our U.S. Department of Agriculture. This has contributed to the fact that this country is perhaps the safest country in the world in which to raise livestock and poultry. Veterinary inspection of our food animals at slaughter is the reason this country enjoys the most bontiful supply of safe, wholesome food of animal origin of any country in the world. Veterinary medical research singly or in concert with allied medical sciences, has been, and remains an indispensable part of research in problems of human health. In our own laboratories at Tuskegee Institute comparative studies in cardiovascular physiology and pathology using the horse as the biological model offer unlimited potential for contributions to storehouse of knowledge in science and medicine. Quite often, health problems in our animal population parallel those of man. Veterinary medicine then is in a particularly strategic position to contribute to the solution of these problems for both man and his animals. Our full potential is only limited by personnel and facilities to train these personnel to carry on this significant work. The bills now before this congress would authorize a program of grants for construction of veterinary medical educational facilities that are urgently needed to meet the demands for expansion of existing facilities. The veterinarians needed in the years ahead cannot be educated without this assistance. Our own facilities at Tuskegee Institute urgently need to be expanded and modernized to meet the rapidly changing advances in the field. We cannot hope to meet these needs without this legislation. Traditionally Tuskegee Institute has served a disadvantaged segment of our nation; we shall very probably continue to serve this group for some years ahead. Unfortunately far to |