This position would fill a critical shortage in central Nevada within Lander County, serving the areas of Argenta, Battle Mountain, and Austin. This area covers approximately 5500 square miles of mostly rural areas, where many beef cattle herds are located. Currently there is over 320,000 acres of farm land and ranks 9th in the state among cow/calf operations and poultry. It is 7th in the state among small ruminants and swine. The area is close to major highways that are thoroughfares for travel from Utah to California, and a disease outbreak would not only disseminate quickly due to location, but also be difficult to detect without larger veterinary monitoring and disease diagnostic capabilities.
The veterinarian will provide routine medical care, regulatory medical services (including OCV vaccination) to beef cattle, as well as routine care and herd management for small ruminants, other cattle, and swine. This veterinarian will provide veterinary services to several commuter herds that travel into Nevada from California and Utah. This veterinarian will provide diagnostic services through in-house testing, post-mortem investigations, and sample submissions.
There is one resident veterinary hospital that services the area of Battle Mountain. An additional resident veterinarian would provide additional resources for this area.
The proximity to Highway 80, which provides a major thoroughfare through Nevada between California and Utah, provides easy travel access for livestock shipments. In fact, some producers elect to sell cattle to Utah because the sale yards in Nevada (Fallon) are further away. This would also provide an efficient route for disease dissemination, if a detection were to arise in Nevada or a neighboring state. This area includes a large number of beef cattle producers, with shared fence lines and extremely remote areas where many herds travel for grazing. As a result, disease would also spread rapidly from ranch to ranch/herd to herd, which make this area particularly vulnerable, without additional veterinary resources.