A few times a year and thousands of miles away from the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), assistant professor Dr. Whitney Waldsmith can be found fulfilling her veterinary oath while serving her country.
As a member of the U.S. Army Reserve, she travels on missions, collaborates with international partners, and leverages her veterinary knowledge for projects focused on improving the health of animals and people. This can include supporting systems for zoonotic disease detection and management, medical treatment and training, or investing in infrastructure to support all of the above.
“I think a veterinary education is broadly applicable and extremely valuable,” says Waldsmith, ’13 DVM. “And what I've learned in traveling is that these systems dictate how we are able to practice as vets. And so understanding the larger systems and the impact of things like culture and economics have on how you practice, on how humans behave, and on where animals fit in society is really fascinating.”
Two of Waldsmith’s recent missions have taken her to the Marshall Islands and Palau. She and her team flew out to those locations and stayed aboard the USNS Mercy, one of the Navy’s two 1,000-bed hospital ships outfitted with modern medical facilities. The ship serves as a base for Pacific Partnership operations.
Located between Hawaii and the Philippines, the Marshall Islands is a small country home to about 42,000 people. With no veterinary services available on the island, a nongovernmental organization coordinates with the U.S. to bring in veterinary professionals to conduct spay and neuter events. Waldsmith’s group joined those efforts, drawing blood and taking fecal samples from animals to test them for parasites. The information gained from the testing seeks to paint a clearer picture of the presence of zoonotic disease on the island and was shared with government officials.
Waldsmith and others also met with local college students and used the blood samples as a teaching opportunity, giving students an overview of blood biology, blood cells, bone marrow, and blood parasites.
