VETERINARY EMERGENCY TEAM (VET)

The Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team continues to lead the country in veterinary medical emergency response and does so through a holistic approach that blends education, service, and research. Our approach brings together students, faculty members, extension agents and emergency managers to improve preparedness and response efforts focused on animals.

Education

The Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences is the only veterinary school in the country that provides a clinical rotation in veterinary medical emergency management. Educating students in preparedness and response approaches is an important component of their education. The American Veterinary Medical Association has recognized and established requirements which must be met to be an AVM certified Veterinary Medical First Responder. The requirements are extensive and the Texas A&M VET is the only program in the country that meets these requirements and this allows our students to be credentialed first responders when they finish our rotation.

2022 Deployments

Eastland County Wildfire Deployment

The Texas A&M VET responded to Eastland County, Texas during an outbreak of wildfire in March. Eastland County was devastated as wildfires burned through dry pasture lands and the small community of Carbon, Texas. These fires unfortunately resulted in a human fatality when an Eastland County Sheriff’s Deputy was caught up in the fire. Animal losses were also extensive with many head of cattle perishing. VET members, working with other partners in emergency response worked diligently to limit animal suffering and production losses during this seven day deployment.

2022 Operation Border Health

The Texas A&M VET participated in Operation Border Health Preparedness exercise, formerly known as Operation Lone Star in July 2022. This event is led by the Texas Department of Health Services and is the state’s public health first response exercise. Numerous partners are involved in the exercise and the VET fulfills our role by providing basic veterinary medical support including vaccinations to the underserved community in Willacy County, Texas. This is an exceedingly rewarding exercise as it provides an opportunity for our school to assist those who cannot access veterinary medical support in the Rio Grande Valley. It is also an opportunity for us to introduce our students to a truly remarkable part of the state. More than 70 team members, including 18 students participated in this seven day deployment.

2022 Hurricane Ian Deployment

The Texas A&M VET also completed an 8 day deployment to Fort Meyers, Florida to assist with the response to Hurricane Ian. The VET had a very defined mission focused on supporting Search and Rescue dogs as they searched for the missing. Our team provided all of the veterinary medical support for the FEMA USAR search dogs operating in the search area beginning on October 6, 2022 and continuing through the end of FEMA USAR operations. This was not the first out-of-state deployment for the VET but was the first time that our team deployed all of our equipment out of state and represents a significant milestone in the history of our team.