GLASSBORO — A large crowd gathered on the morning of Oct. 3 here on the Rowan University campus — formerly Glassboro State College — to celebrate a new milestone for livestock farmers in the Garden State, the opening of the Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine.

Rowan University president Dr. Ali Houshmand, former New Jersey Senate president Steve Sweeney, New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Ed Wengryn, State Sens. John Burzichelli and Troy Singleton were among those gathered here under a tent to recognize the first incoming class of 75 students.

Dr. Matthew Edson, a roving livestock veterinarian for decades in Burlington, Ocean and Cape May counties, will be leading the new school. New Jersey Farmer met with him and one incoming student, Cali Moore, in a brief tour of some of the school’s operating rooms.

“I was born and raised in New Jersey, have been here my whole life, and I live 20 minutes away,” Moore said, adding she received her undergraduate degree from Rowan University as well.

“I always wanted to go to vet school and this is really local. I didn’t want to move away. This was the only place I applied, so I don’t have to pack up and move across the country,” Moore said. “We’ll be able to treat cats, dogs, small ruminants, horses and cows, all of what you should be able to do when you walk out of these doors.”

Built into the budget at the new Shreiber School is a team of roving mobile trucks with veterinarians who will be able to treat livestock animals at farms across the Garden State.
Gerald Shreiber, an animal lover and founder of the nearby J&J Snack Foods donated $30 million to help launch the school and fund scholarships for students.

Asked where she plans to be in five years, Moore said, “I’ll be in some debt after college, but it won’t be as substantial as if I had to move somewhere out-of-state and pay for my own lodging. Even before coming to school here, I would get calls at the cat and dog practice where I worked from farmers or people raising livestock to ask if we knew someone who could come out and treat a goat or a pig or their alpaca. I would have to say, ‘I don’t really have anybody to tell you about.’”

Within four years, it is hoped the state’s acute shortage of livestock veterinarians qualified to treat cows, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry, alpacas, horses and bison will be alleviated.

Edson, born and raised in Burlington County in Eastampton where he still lives, grew up milking cows at Sunnyside Farm, and his parents raised dairy goats, a few horses and chickens on their farm.
“We have three operating rooms here and a separate suite for oral surgery and dentistry,” Edson said, entering on of the operating rooms. The school also has a certified farrier for hoof care. Four veterinary doctors and Edson will guide the students as they make their way through the school’s four year program.

The first class will move on into their high demand occupation in 2029, Edson explained. Forty of the incoming students are from New Jersey, and the other 35 from states as far away as Washington, California, Texas and Georgia.

“We do a systems-based curriculum, so we work around a specific body system,” Edson said. “The first is normal form and function, then there’s neuro-muscular and skeletal, and then cardio-respiratory, all about the heart and lungs. Students are learning [these arenas] across the majority of major species. Another way of thinking about it is, the first year is all the normals, the second year is all the abnormals, and the third year is making those abnormals normal again. Then the fourth year is putting it all into practice in a clinical environment.”

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