Transforming the future of health
A University of Minnesota residency program is equipping veterinarians with vital training to tackle threats to public health in the U.S. and across the globe.
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Veterinarians are a vital part of local communities. Their work not only keeps family pets feeling well and preserves the livelihoods of livestock producers—it safeguards the health of the greater world.
Veterinary public health—applying the contributions of veterinary science to protect and improve the health of animals, humans and the environment—guides their efforts to educate clients on dog bite prevention, rabies vaccinations, parasite control, and zoonotic diseases.
“Every clinical veterinarian is a frontline public health practitioner as they keep pets and livestock healthy and free of diseases and parasites that could be transmitted to people,” says Melinda Wilkins, associate professor in the Veterinary Population Medicine Department at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. “This is why public health is specifically mentioned in the Veterinarian's Oath we all swear to upon graduation from veterinary school.”
Veterinarians serving in specialized public health roles, often with government agencies or nonprofits, don’t focus on individual patients but rather on health threats arising at human-animal-environmental interfaces such as meat, milk and egg safety, antimicrobial resistance, tick- and mosquito-borne diseases and how climate change will impact the geography of diseases.
Wilkins is among those training the next generation of public health veterinarians to tackle these challenges. She directs the Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residency (VPHPM), a two-year program offered by the college’s Center for Animal Health and Food Safety that allows early- to mid-career veterinarians to gain specialized training in veterinary public health practice. Established in 2002, the VPHPM residency is the first program in the United States to receive recognition from the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine.
“Our residents get to work on new and emerging issues in the U.S. and around the globe,” Wilkins says. “They help to shape policy issues as they unfold, and these policy issues and research projects involve domestic and foreign animal diseases, food safety and security issues, and wildlife/environmental issues.”
Working in these emerging areas allows residents to experience the regulatory landscape, practice networking and communications skills, take on leadership roles and learn how to manage multiple tasks and projects at one time, all key skills for a One Health professional. One Health is a concept that recognizes the interconnectedness of animal, human and environmental health.
As part of this work, residents partner with researchers within the college and with professional colleagues in state and federal public health and agricultural agencies. Their efforts yield real-world impact and are used to affect policy and educate the public about public health, preventive medicine, animal health, and food safety issues.
Meet three recent residency graduates with their sights set on creating a healthier world:
A flesh-eating bug is back. Minnesota researchers are working to stop it.
New World screwworm has returned to North America after decades of eradication. Guillermo Arcega Castillo is working with veterinarians and ranchers in Mexico and Central America to strengthen preparedness for future cases.
While its scientific name means “man-eater,” the New World screwworm has posed the greatest threat to animals, namely livestock that suffer serious and often deadly damage from the parasite burrowing into their flesh.
For the first time in 60 years, New World screwworm (NWS) has been detected in the United States, with animal cases confirmed in Texas and New Mexico raising concerns among cattle producers in the U.S.
Among those working to help prevent the next stream of outbreaks from spreading are researchers at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), who seek to fill gaps in veterinarian knowledge regarding a disease once considered eradicated.
“It’s an animal health emergency,” says Guillermo Arcega Castillo, a Veterinary Public Health and Preventative Medicine Resident in the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety (CAHFS). “It affects wildlife, livestock, companion animals and sometimes people.”
Making a greater impact
From a Nebraska hobby farm to the front lines of disease surveillance, Rachael Schulte has leveraged her public health training to protect people and livestock—and start a new chapter in her career.
When Rachael Schulte was growing up on her family’s Nebraska hobby farm, she learned firsthand how many ways humans and animals are connected.
Whether it was raising meat rabbits alongside angora rabbits whose fur her mother spun into yarn, breeding Siamese cats as affectionate companions or keeping goats for both meat and fiber, Schulte’s experience showed her the intricate web of connections between people and animals that public health exists to protect.
Her interest in animals never wavered, leading her to the University of Missouri, where she earned a dual degree in veterinary medicine and a master’s in public health. After graduation, she spent five years in emergency and relief practice. While the work was rewarding, it was often emotionally draining, especially during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was working out of my own bucket, without having a way to get anything poured into me,” she says.
One residency, many directions
Over the last two years, dozens of projects and experience with multiple species have prepared veterinarian Michelle Schultze for a wide range of public health work.
Michelle Schultze followed her curiosity, and it took her further than she ever planned.
After earning her DVM at Iowa State University, she spent a couple of years in small-animal practice. But a public health course during her time in Iowa had her thinking about epidemiology, eventually leading her to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, where she worked on a project on chronic wasting disease.
But she didn’t stop there.
Schultze is currently finishing the University of Minnesota’s Veterinary Public Health and Preventative Medicine Residency (VPHPM), a two-year program housed in the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety. Her work for the residency has taken her from the parks of Hennepin County to Washington, D.C., where she helped present research to a deputy administrator at USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
“I just want to learn everything,” she says.
Change the world with a career in veterinary public health
The Veterinary Public Health and Preventative Medicine Residency (VPHPM) program gives early- to mid-career veterinarians the chance to make a career pivot, expand their knowledge and experience base, dive into research, hone presentation and writing skills and prepare to sit for the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine (ACVPM) exam in a well-supported cohort setting.
Established in 2002, the VPHPM residency is the first program in the United States to receive recognition from the ACVPM and is one of only five ACVPM-certified training programs.
Residency graduates go on to work with government, industry, and academia in roles that are working to control and eradicate zoonoses (including new and re-emerging diseases), protecting the food supply from food-borne pathogens and bioterrorism, and educating the public.
For more information, visit the Veterinary Public Health and Preventative Medicine Residency website.
