Texas Tech University will launch the nation’s first new veterinary school in 40 years.
The Amarillo, Texas city council recently approved an amendment to a 2016 agreement between Texas Tech and the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation to fund up to $69 million to ensure the construction of the Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine. Leaders say that along with addressing the critical shortage of rural veterinarians, the school will be the only veterinary school in the country co-located with a pharmacy school and medical school on the same campus, thus expanding opportunities to combine research efforts impacting both human and animal health. Economic officials in Amarillo applaud the economic investment the school will provide the community, along with “generations of families” in the state’s livestock industry.
The school stems from a report in 2016 adopted by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board detailing the shortages of large animal and rural veterinarians in Texas, and the adverse impact on global food supplies.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.