2004-3-29
This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture
Report.
When people feel sick, doctors treat them. So, who treats
animals? Veterinarians are doctors for animals. But they also
protect human health.
Veterinarians are the first line of defense against animal
diseases that can spread quickly. Diseases, like some kinds of bird
flu, can spread to humans. Others, like foot and mouth disease,
cause economic damage.
Some veterinarians in the United States inspect animals raised
for food. Some study diseases. Others work for drug companies and
medical companies. And about half of all veterinarians care for more
than one-hundred-million cats and dogs that Americans keep for
pleasure.
Becoming a veterinarian is hard work. Students take two years of
preparatory studies in college. They must learn in the classroom
about animal biology, diseases, medicines and treatments.
Then, they attend four years in a college of veterinary medicine.
There, students work in laboratories and treatment centers to gain
real experience with animal health. They also learn to perform
medical operations.
There are twenty-eight schools of veterinary medicine in the
United States. More than eight-thousand-five-hundred students study
the subject. Seventy-five percent of the students are women. About
two-thousand new veterinarians enter the job market each year.
States give veterinarians official permission to treat animals. A
veterinarian must take a test to receive a license from any state
where he or she works.
A number of groups help veterinarians. The American Veterinary
Medical Association is one of the oldest. It started in
eighteen-eighty-nine. The organization officially approves schools
that teach veterinary science.
The Department of Agriculture established the National Veterinary
Accreditation Program in nineteen-twenty-one. The program was
designed to teach veterinarians how to work with federal and state
officials supervising animals raised for food. The program gives
veterinarians extra training.
Veterinarians have always been important to agriculture and
public health. They set broken bones, treat infectious diseases,
perform operations and help animals give birth. Many also are
involved in the study of diseases that spread among animals.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario
Ritter. This is Steve Ember.