The catastrophic injury that ended Barbaro's Triple Crown bid at Pimlico on May 20 - and the extraordinary effort by University of Pennsylvania surgeons to save him - have turned a spotlight on veterinary medicine in the United States.
Enjoying little of the attention that doctors of human medicine receive, veterinary researchers are using much of the same science to understand, prevent and treat animal injuries, and to fight diseases that affect agriculture and the food supply.
Veterinarians are also working on such illnesses as avian flu, West Nile virus, Lyme disease and mad cow disease in a joint effort with public health officials to safeguard human health.
"Veterinarians have been contributing to advances not just in veterinary care, but also human medical care, for years and years," said Dr. Lawrence E. Heider, executive director of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges.
But the nation's 28 veterinary schools are at capacity and can't keep up with the demand for new doctors. They admit about 2,600 new students each year, but 600 others must seek their training abroad, Heider said.
"Right now, there is enormous demand for graduates from all vet schools," said Jeffrey Douglas, spokesman for the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. "The profession is playing a huge role in society, but it lacks the infrastructure and the money to do the job it needs to do."
`We need support'
Legislation before Congress would authorize $1.5 billion in grants over five to 10 years to expand and strengthen veterinary training programs.
"We need support for that," said Dr. Susan M. Stover, an equine researcher at the University of California, Davis. "Vets are critical to human health and food safety in ways that I don't think the public has the knowledge to have an appreciation for."
For many Americans, the sophisticated care that Barbaro received at Penn's New Bolton Center was a revelation. But vet schools across the country provide state-of-the-art treatment every day, even as they train young veterinarians and conduct cutting-edge research.
Stover's lab at UC Davis, under the authority of the California Horse Racing Board, conducts animal autopsies - called necropsies - on about 250 thoroughbreds that die at California racetracks each year.
Barbaro suffered "a particularly severe combination of injuries, but the most catastrophic happened to be the most common injury we see in California racehorses," Stover said.
