Rural Background and Animal Experience Predict Food Animal Vet Careers

If the shortage of rural veterinarians persists, recruiting better requires knowing which students are most likely to choose the countryside. A multi-institutional study published on 2 September 2026 in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association sought predictors of entry into rural practice that could be used in schools' admissions decisions.

The sample gathered 6,431 graduates of 33 accredited American and Caribbean veterinary schools that use the centralised application service (VMCAS) and the AVMA Graduating Senior Survey. The researchers examined the first destinations of the classes of 2019 to 2023, including place of first employment, and used logistic regression to identify variables that predict a graduate's choice of rural food animal employment over other settings.

A graduate's community of origin, the community selected for their first job, and both veterinary and non-veterinary experiences with food animals had the strongest relationships with the choice of employment type and location. The authors conclude that community of origin and food animal experiences are statistically significant indicators of the likelihood of entering rural practice upon graduation, and that the findings can inform recruitment strategies and admissions practices to shape the demographics of veterinary classes and, with them, the practice locations and types of future graduates.

The study extends 2023 work by the same group, published in JAVMA with 478 Auburn University graduates from the classes of 2019 to 2022. In that context, where 47 US states had a federally recognised veterinary shortage, logistic regression and latent class analysis already pointed to community of origin, preferred community and gender as the strongest predictors. The 2026 version tests the hypothesis across 33 schools and adds food animal experiences.

If origin weighs so heavily, policies that try to change the path after entry into veterinary school need careful evaluation. In France, a tutored internship programme subsidises students and mentors for a training period in remote rural areas, aiming to integrate and retain future veterinarians. A study published in 2024 in PLoS One evaluated the programme with survey data from 2016 to 2020 and three methods derived from causal inference theory. The average effect of the internship on work in the food animal sector was not significant. But among veterinarians with a low share of work in that sector, the internship led to rural practice after graduation between 13% and 20% greater than among those who did not participate. In other words, the programme did not change those already decided, but it moved those on the margin.

The scale of the problem is international. A qualitative study published in 2025 in Frontiers in Veterinary Science, with 124 responses from students and practising veterinarians in Alberta, Canada, describes the rural veterinarian shortage as a growing global concern, with a risk of significant impacts on livestock management, agriculture and public health in rural and remote communities. Thematic analysis pointed to personal and family ties to rural life, the strong relationships that form in rural communities, work variety and exposure during veterinary school as motivators; limited resources and supports as deterrents; and better salary and benefits, tuition or debt forgiveness, mentorship and fewer on-call duties as incentives.

For schools and professional councils in Brazil and the region, where the gap in care in small municipalities is well known, the three papers suggest two complementary fronts: select and support students of rural origin with prior food animal experience, and design rural internships for the undecided, which is where the French evidence shows an effect. This summary is based on the published abstracts; the coefficients and limitations are in the full texts.