The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents approved the creation of a bachelor’s degree in animal-wildlife veterinary technology for Texas A&M University- Kingsville. The program will be housed in the animal and wildlife science department in the Dick and Mary Lewis Kleberg College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Human Sciences and complement their animal and wildlife sciences program.

“This is an especially important program for our college, university and region,” said Dr. Steven Tallant, university president. “This highly selective program will help fill a need in the private sector as well as with state and federal agencies. Our program will be unique in the nation in that our students will specialize in large animals because of its affiliation with our animal and wildlife sciences department.”

The next step for the university will be to get approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Once that approval is received, state funding will be needed. After funding is approved, it should take about a year to get the program up and running.

Dr. Allen Rasmussen, dean of the college, said the program will require start up funding of nearly $4 million for the first two years of the program so that existing facilities can be renovated to house the veterinary technology program.

“Our existing programs in wildlife and animal science will complement the vet tech program because of the emphasis on large animals and wildlife as well as our research on wildlife disease,” Rasmussen said. “In the reverse, the program will help what we already have by providing support for animal health and research capacity.”

“Animal health care for livestock and wildlife is lacking across much of rural South Texas,” he said. “This program will help existing veterinarians meet the animal

Vet Tech care needs for this region. For the university, it will improve our teaching capacity in a critical area and provide students that graduate in this area with the credentials to obtain high quality jobs.

“It also will provide help to the entire university community increasing our research capabilities with veterinarians on staff and enhancing our ability to do more animal disease work that affects South Texas livestock and wildlife,” Rasmussen added.

The veterinary technology program will provide a student with a four-year bachelor’s degree upon completion, which will make graduated eligible to take the examination to become a registered veterinary technologist.

The job market is growing for veterinary technologists, projected to increase by 41 percent by 2016. In addition to an increasing demand working with veterinarians, technologists could find jobs with biomedical research firms, zoological and other wildlife facilities, diagnostic laboratories, veterinary supply companies, humane societies, food and drug manufacturing companies, animal control facilities, equine breeding farms and cattle feedlots.

In addition to veterinary medicine expertise, graduates of the program will be trained to deal with the business aspects of running a veterinary clinic.

Since graduates of the A&M-Kingsville program will have the opportunity to take several wildlife courses as electives, they will be better prepared to deal with free-ranging wildliferelated veterinary issues that most other veterinary technologists from other degree programs. This unique wildlife training should make graduates very competitive for jobs with state and federal agencies and universities that deal with wildlife disease issues and research.

The proposed program at Texas A&M-Kingsville will not duplicate any existing programs in Texas because none of the four-year colleges and universities in the state offer a four-year degree. Five community and junior colleges and one four-year university offer veterinary technician associate degrees. There are only 16 four-year universities and colleges in the nation that offer a bachelor’s degree in veterinary technology and almost all of these institutions are in the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast; of these, only two specialize in large animal medicine.

It is projected that around 19 students will be admitted the first year, growing to about 73 by the fifth year. It is estimated that no more than 30 new students will be admitted each year.