LSU Vet School’s open house is 250 years in the making

The LSU School of Veterinary Medicine will host its 29th Annual Open House on Saturday, February 5 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free and open to the public, the event offers Baton Rougeans a glimpse inside one of only 28 vet school in the country.

This year’s immense exhibition was 250 years in the making. In 1761, the world’s first veterinary school was established in Lyon, France. Years before the French and American revolutions, these scientists understood that improving the lives of animals would ultimately improve the lives of people.

That principle has recently been resurrected globally by One Health Initiative. In acknowledgment of the interconnectivity between animal and human health and science, this progressive group has forged an all-inclusive collaborations between physicians, osteopaths, veterinarians, dentists, nurses and other scientific-health and environmentally related disciplines—including the American Medical Association, American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States Department of Agriculture and the U.S. National Environmental Health Association.

“Everybody knows veterinarians as animal doctors;” says Veterinarian Bernard Vallat, the current director general of the World Organisation for Animal Health (known as OIE), “but, few know that they truly play a pivotal role in the prevention and control of infectious animal diseases, including those transmissible to humans, animal welfare, food production or food safety.”

To celebrate OIE and highlight the importance of the veterinarians play in lives of humans, One World, One Medicine was chosen as this year’s theme.

The family-friendly open house offers an opportunity to explore veterinary medicine and the latest developments in animal health care, welfare and biomedical research. Visitors take a self-guided tour through the vet school, where students, faculty and staff provide information and exhibits. As the tour winds through the cavernous building, guests see the anatomy laboratory, intensive care units, cancer treatment unit, surgery and radiology suites among other departments.

Throughout the day, veterinary staff and students perform equine treadmill demonstrations, companion animal underwater treadmill therapy sessions and exams on exotic animals such as birds of prey, reptiles and rodents. Children can “fish” for prizes at an endoscopy station; encounter adoptable bunnies, cats and dogs at rescue organization’s booths and farm animals at the petting zoo; and, learn about the vast variety of animals at the dog and horse Parade of Breeds. Furthermore, kids can also bring their own injured stuffed animals to a teddy bear clinic to be “sutured.”

New this year is a booth that features information about the school’s own ongoing clinical research. “Many people think of us a serving their pets, without realizing [the vet school] is also actively involved in research that can have an impact on global human health,” explains Gretchen K. Morgan, the vet school’s LSU director of annual giving and alumni affairs and the open house organizer.

For the first time, the event also features videos of animal rescues performed both after the recent hurricanes and the oil spill; state-of-the-art rescue equipment and trailers are on site to view and tour.

By the time they leave, Morgan hopes Baton Rougeans will be better educated about the relevance of veterinary medicine—even for individuals who don’t own or interact with animals. “Our mission,” says Morgan, “is saving lives, finding cures and changing lives.”

For more information and a schedule of events, visit http://www1.vetmed.lsu.edu/svm/.

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