Over the past several years, the Star has published several stories about the purported shortage of food-animal veterinarians in Arizona as the driving force for establishing a veterinary college at the University of Arizona.
Basic economics teaches that as a product or service simultaneously experiences both high demand and low supply, prices or wages go up.
Interestingly, the article in the Star published March 9 suggests that this might not be the case for food-animal veterinarians.
The article cites typical new graduates take jobs in urban areas for about $67,000 per year and have accrued about $135,000 in indebtedness. Dr. Shane Burgess, head of the UA College of Agriculture, indicates that he expects students will be able to complete a veterinary degree at the University of Arizona and incur about $70,000 in indebtedness, making a lower starting salary of $50,000 per year more financially acceptable for a rural practitioner.
Every time I see one of these stories indicating there is unmet demand for food-animal veterinarians in Arizona, I do a quick Internet job search at the American Veterinary Medical Association and American Association of Bovine Practitioners websites.
Today, I turned up one opening in rural Arizona for an 80 percent small-animal/20 percent large-animal position.
Between there being few job openings in rural Arizona and an expectation that a rural practitioner with a lower level of indebtedness should be willing to settle for lower wages, the question arises as to how critical the shortage of veterinarians really is.
A licensed or certified veterinary technician earns between $25,000 and $45,000 per year, according to Payscale.com. This requires two years of training, available at Pima Community College, and passing the national and state licensing exams.
This makes a veterinary degree with $70,000 of indebtedness and a starting salary of $50,000 per year not look like a great investment. A talented student with excellent grades in the sciences could also look at any number of careers in human medicine that pay better than rural veterinary practice, including nursing, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, optometrist, dental hygiene, podiatrist, dentist or physician.
When I was in veterinary school, we learned that economics do drive demand for veterinary services. We were told that food-animal prducers may not call veterinarians to take care of a single sick animal because the value of the animal was less than the farm call fee.
Instead, we were told we would deal with herd health management and herd medical problems, and only see individual food animals of significant sentimental (4-H projects) or economic value (usually cattle and not sheep, goats or pigs).
While it is true that rural veterinary practitioners are critical in the surveillance for exotic animal diseases that threaten Arizonaβs livestock industry, this doesnβt generate demand for food-animal veterinary services sufficient to keep a practitioner in business or sufficient incentive for people to choose a relatively low-paying career in rural veterinary practice.
Minta Keyes is a small-animal veterinarian and owner of a feline practice in Tucson.
