Here's the scene: Veterinary faculty from UT explaining animal nutrition and lab procedures to faculty from the China Agriculture Institute. The Chinese faculty then try to explain to the UT faculty why acupuncture and alternative medicines can be helpful in addressing animal complaints. Keep in mind that this exchange is happening in Beijing. The conversation is part of a novel three-year partnership between the two universities, intended to promote cooperative educational, research and cultural exchange programs, in order to study livestock and human diseases. All of this goes to show that, in our increasingly global understanding, a meaningful dialogue between humans and animals may not require a page from Dr. Doolittle, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to carry a Chinese phrasebook.
The genesis of this remarkable exchange occurred in November of 2006, when two UT College of Veterinary Medicine officials, Dean Michael Blackwell, recent winner of the FDA Distinguished Alumni Awards, and Hwa-Chain Robert Wang, administrator of international affairs for the college, visited China and had an opportunity to meet faculty from China Agriculture University. Six months later, at the fifth annual meeting of Chinese deans of veterinary colleges, Blackwell was invited to serve as keynote speaker to talk about various aspects of veterinary medicines in the United States. He was the first American dean to receive an invitation to this event.
With the tireless assistance of Hwa-Chain Wang, UT was able to create meaningful relations between UT's veterinary school and its Chinese counterpart. As a direct result, UT agreed to offer a cross-cultural short course on public health and, by way of the exchange, earned accolades and received funding from a program called Global Initiatives in Veterinary Education (GIVE). Organized by the American Veterinary Medical Colleges, the GIVE program fosters mutually beneficial international partnerships with veterinary schools in the developing world. UT's College of Veterinary Medicine is the first college to be awarded a GIVE grant of this nature.
As distances shrink and populations grow and shift, the need to understand the relationships between human beings and the other residents of this planet has never been greater. What we know about the health of the planet and the human race has a great deal to do with what we know about Earth's animals. Through these shared international opportunities, UT's veterinary research extends far beyond stables and barnyards to affect physical and economic health of state, nation, and world.
For more information about the College of Veterinary Medicine and this program, please visit:
To find out more about UT's international efforts, visit Ready For the World.
