Newsroom

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State University faculty and students from the College of Veterinary Medicine will perform the check-in veterinary inspections of 4-H animals at the Benton County Fair on Tuesday, Aug. 2.

The service is being provided by OSU's Rural Veterinary Practice program in the college, commonly known as the RVP service.

The faculty and students will check the animals before they enter the Benton County Fairgrounds to make sure they are healthy and free of possible contagious diseases, said Aurora Villarroel, an OSU Extension veterinarian and a faculty member in the college.

"This is the first time the RVP service has done this at the fair," Villarroel said. "It is a good way to prevent the spread of common diseases, it's a great experience for our students, and it helps 4-H kids begin to think about veterinary medicine in terms of both maintaining good health for their animals and preventing disease."

Villarroel said the faculty and students would focus primarily on contagious skin diseases, especially ringworm, which can be contagious not only among animals but also to humans. They also will look for signs of general illness that can be contagious - mostly respiratory diseases.

The Rural Veterinary Practice service travels to farms within a 30-mile radius of OSU's College of Veterinary Medicine to provide veterinary service for food animals and equines. Five clinicians and a half-dozen students combine efforts to offer services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (only emergencies are attended after-hours).

The college has two veterinary trucks for this rural service, and a third vehicle geared up to help with special reproductive issues - either fertility assistance or difficult births in any animal species, including horses, dogs and cats.

"About 80 percent of what we do is related to reproduction," Villarroel said, "but we also do treatments and preventive medicine of equids and food animals, including cows, goats, sheep and pigs."