Reply Hazy Try Again*

In preparation for my thesis research project that begins in mid-May (Really? Mid-May? Who set that impossible schedule? Oh, I did....), I am learning about the following topics:

• growth and development of poultry, specifically broilers (those are the ones we eat; the ones that lay eggs are different)
• design of animal nutrition feeding trials that answer the proposed hypotheses and minimize sources of error
• statistical analysis of data collected during animal feeding trials
• humane care of animals used in scientific research, including humane euthanasia methods
• laboratory techniques for analyzing animal tissue, feed, and excreta (yep, I'll be collecting and analyzing chicken shit)
• design of experimental diets and formulation of animal rations
• lipid biochemistry (this is actually fascinating stuff)

Whew. Good thing I am a quick study. I'm learning the new "codes" and plunging deep into the literature. I've bookmarked the university library's links for online access to scintillating journals such as "World's Poultry Science Journal" and "Journal of Nutrition". One of my textbooks is "Scott's Nutrition of the Chicken", 4th edition. Laugh all you must. Work it out of your system now.

Vet school? Still on the agenda. The online application opens in June. Could I end up being a poultry vet, working for some soulless agriconglomocomplex in Iowa? It's possible--the starting salaries are nearly triple what an entry-level clinician makes (the clinician is the vet that looks after your Fluffy and Spot). That takes some of the sting out of the cost of vet school, to be sure.

I learned something the other day that really made me sit back and think: most vets go into clinical work, and by far, the majority of those into clinical work with small animals, because they want to address the health of the individual animal. In contrast, production vets are concerned about the health of the group (flock, herd, etc.), not any one individual in particular. Seems obvious, right? But I had not actually considered this in such explicit terms. Unlike many of my peers, I am apparently comfortable with the herd health concept. This doesn't rule out a clinical career but it suggests that I need to remain as open as possible to these other paths. 

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