Students are invited to stay 2-12 weeks (or more if requested) and can expect to gain a full, well rounded experience not only with in-hospital procedures and daily wellness care, but also with shelter and emergency medicine. Daily responsibilities: Assist our Veterinarians, fellow Veterinary students and technicians with medical/patient care, medication administration, sterilization of surgical equipment, proper disinfection of isolation areas, and assist in surgical procedures. Students receive a reimbursement for gas and food of up to $100/wk. during their stay.

The Pacific Northwest Salmonid Veterinary Externship Program (PNSVEP) was created by a handful of aquatic veterinarians in Washington and Idaho to expose those veterinary students with a focused interest in aquaculture medicine to a variety of salmon and trout hatcheries, natural resource agenices, and aquatic health professionals. The program aims to offer insight into herd health management of aquatic species for production (human consumption) and/or mitigation (wildlife supplementation). The externship will provide students opportunities to assist with spawning efforts, broodstock surveillance sampling, necropsies, clinical case workups, lab test selection, development of treatment and disease management strategies, and biosecurity audits. Along the way there will be an overarching review of fish husbandry, welfare, and major pathogens that affect wild and captive coldwater finfish within the Pacific Northwest. The program endeavors to impress upon stduents the challenges politics and drug regulations pertaining to food fish (“minor species”) pose to veterinarians working within the industry. Students will visit several locations (Eagle, Idaho; Spokane, WA; Wenatchee, WA; and Olympia, WA), rotating between veterinarians and moving east to west or west to east. Species involved include Chinook, steelhead, rainbow trout, white sturgeon, coho, and kokanee.

The Alabama Fish Farming Center is in the heart of Alabama's aquaculture industry.  The center does disease diagnosis for catfish, sportfish, tilapia, crayfish and marine shrimp.  The lab is equipped to conduct diagnosis of aquaculture species for parasites, bacteria, and viruses.  The lab has the molecular equipment to conduct qPCR for determining the specific pathogen.  The lab also routinely does microbial checks for a local processing plant. The lab is also equipped with a mobile fish diagnostic laboratory that is driven to many farms in the area reporting problems with diseases.  This laboratory is equipped to conduct diagnosis of aquatic animals for parasites, bacteria, and collect material for viruses. Our main clientele are channel catfish and hybrid catfish producers so the majority of the experience will center on these.  We also work closely with the local vets to assist farmers with obtaining Veterinary Feed Directives for antibiotic feed. We will introduce the candidate to the local vets as well as provide a tour of the local feed mill that is FDA certified to make antibiotic feed.  We will also arrange for a tour of the processing plant.

Hands on participation with exams, diagnosis, and medical / surgical treatment of small animals in clinic practice