Pennsylvania Ag Connection - Funding Vital for PennVET in State Budget

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Funding Vital for PennVET in State Budget
By: Richard Ebert, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau - 06/20/2017

Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, and our 62,000 member families, are calling on lawmakers to support the restoration of funding to the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. We believe state support of Penn Vet--the state's only veterinary school--is a wise investment of state dollars, one that helps protect the viability of our farms.

Penn Vet is a nationally recognized leader in food safety research. Penn Vet's work on proper egg handling has nearly eradicated the occurrence of Salmonella in eggs produced throughout Pennsylvania. That research has been replicated across the country and serves as a key example of the work Penn Vet does to protect our food supply.

Penn Vet researchers work in concert with experts from Penn State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture on a three-tiered system that monitors for animal diseases. Their collective efforts not only track diseases that could harm Pennsylvania's livestock farmers, they also study diseases that could impact human health. Some animal diseases have the potential to spread to humans. That puts Penn Vet on the front line of disease monitoring and testing, and we can ill afford to jeopardize funding to these important efforts.

Penn Vet researchers are part of the One Health Initiative that looks to find common links between human and animal health that can combat diseases and infections. Research done by Penn Vet on animal cancers is now being used in human clinical trials. And Penn Vet has partnered with the Mayo Clinic on finding ways to predict and control seizures in dogs and humans.

That makes an investment in Penn Vet beneficial not only to farmers, but consumers as well. As the state's only veterinary school, Penn Vet also helps recruit the next generation of talent who want to embark on careers as veterinarians. Their recruitment efforts are paying dividends. More than 70 percent of Penn Vet graduates remain in Pennsylvania, where they have set up practices in nearly every county in the Commonwealth.

Farmers, like so many small business owners, know the importance of following sound fiscal practices. We understand the need to reduce spending in lean times and how to manage profits in times of favorable markets. But at the same time, farmers are willing to make investments that pay dividends in the long run. Putting state dollars to the surveillance of diseases that could devastate our livestock is prudent. When the agriculture economy suffers in Pennsylvania, so does the local economy.

As a dairy farmer, I couldn't imagine if I lost access to quality veterinarian care. That's why we are calling on members of the state General Assembly to provide the resources necessary for the support system of agriculture.

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