From the Chair

As Chair of VDPAM, I am pleased to welcome you to our website and introduce you to our people and programs. VDPAM was created in 1997 to strategically grow the resources and emphasis in production animal medicine at the ISU College of Veterinary Medicine. Faculty from multiple disciplines were brought together into one department and focused their professional practice, teaching, research, outreach, and extension programs on advancing knowledge on best practices in production animal health and welfare.

VDPAM consists of approximately 55 faculty and 120 staff. We teach approximately 65 courses to veterinary students. VDPAM offers a certificate program and a graduate degree program in Veterinary Preventive Medicine, doctorate in Population Sciences in Animal Health, and residency programs in large animal internal medicine, large animal surgery, clinical pharmacology, theriogenology, dairy and large animal specialty areas for the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners. The Swine Medicine Education Center was established in 2011 and has quickly become an international resource for education of swine focused veterinary students and practitioners.

Our faculty and staff are extensively connected to and serve food animal agriculture through the ISU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory which utilizes world class technology to provide timely and comprehensive diagnostic services by coordination of over 70,000 cases per year submitted from practicing veterinarians. VDPAM faculty and staff operate the Food Animal and Camelid Hospital, the ISU Veterinary Field Service unit, the ISU Embryo Transfer Service and the Food Animal Theriogenology Service which provide the latest medical and surgical services and reproductive technologies to the region.

VDPAM prides itself in being connected to stakeholders through the professional services we provide. This rich clinical case base provides outstanding learning opportunities for our students and is often the source of questions that drive the focus of VDPAM research programs. Our research efforts contribute to improving global food security and growing animal agriculture in Iowa and the U.S. The research programs being conducted in VDPAM cover a wide range of topics including food animal infectious diseases, food safety, zoonotic diseases, toxicology, welfare and behavior, risk assessment, clinical pharmacology, quantitative epidemiology, research synthesis, evidence based medicine and other areas. An excellent way to understand the breadth, depth and impact of the research being conducted in VDPAM is to visit the VDPAM Google Scholar page.

Effective extension programs are core to the mission of a land grant university. Four VDPAM faculty have official appointments in Veterinary Extension. These individuals have responsibilities for beef, dairy, swine and poultry extension. VDPAM faculty also provide extension and outreach programs in small ruminant production medicine and our faculty are active in the Iowa Pork Industry Center, the Iowa Beef Center, and the Egg Industry Center, and the Center for Food Security and Public Health.

Browse through our pages and you'll learn more about our academic programs, our faculty, research and services. Read further about our MissionVision, Strategic Operational Plans, and our Governance Document. Please contact us for further information or to share any comments relevant to our programs.



Dr. Patrick Halbur
Patrick G. Halbur, DVM, MS, PhD
Professor and Chair of VDPAM, Executive Director of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
pghalbur@iastate.edu, 515-294-6970