We’re thrilled to share that once again the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine has been named the top veterinary school in the world!
While SeaDoc Society is a self-sustaining program on Orcas Island whose scientific and educational work is focused entirely on improving the health of the Salish Sea, we are proud to be a program of the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center, a center of excellence at UC Davis’ incredible veterinary school. This week’s #1 ranking comes from the highly reputable Quacquarelli Symonds, but Davis is also number one with U.S. News and World Reports and several other world rankings. It’s the best of the best, and we’re lucky to have such brilliant people on our side.
The vet school leads the nation with more than $78 million in annual research funding that is applied to benefit animal, human and planetary health. That includes work with the PREDICT Project, which is home to a team of experts that are currently on the front lines of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
When our teams collect samples from Southern Resident Killer Whales or other marine animals in the Salish Sea, they are often analyzed at the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center—ground zero for the pandemic research that has proactively detected hundreds of new viruses in wildlife over the last decade.
UC Davis has more than 700 students pursuing the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and other professional and graduate degrees, and they offer the nation’s largest veterinarian residency program with more than 30 specialties. SeaDoc has routinely hosted UC Davis veterinary students as summer research interns, many of whom have gone into important wildlife health work like being in charge of health for recovery of the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. Also, our very own Research Assistant, Lizzy Ashley, has been accepted to UC Davis and will begin her own veterinary degree down in Davis this fall!
As has always been the case, SeaDoc’s work is funded by donors like you, but our affiliation with UC Davis is an asset not only in our work as scientists, but across the board as an organization.