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South Dakota has been identified as an area with a shortage, and many veterinarians are reluctant to inspect animals at sale barns, he said.
• However, Oedekoven said, "By and large, people are able to get veterinary services."
• Veterinarian Penny Dye of Rapid City, president of the South Dakota Veterinary Medical Association, said the biggest problem is that many veterinary medical school graduates carry large student loan debts.
• "We're not really short of veterinarians. The bigger issue is not being able to pay for their education, so loan repayment is a huge issue," Dye said.
• Nationally, the average debt of a veterinary medical school graduate is more than $142,000, Dye said, and beginning salaries average $46,000.
• South Dakota has no veterinary medical school of its own, but has an agreement to place six students a year in the four-year veterinary school at Iowa State University. South Dakota pays the difference between Iowa State's resident and non-resident tuition, and the students have to agree to practice in South Dakota for four years.
• Oedekoven said that many graduates in the program wind up having to move out of South Dakota for financial or family reasons before they complete four years of practice, which means they have to reimburse the state for paying the difference between resident and non-resident tuition. Veterinarians who work on dogs, cats and other small animals in bigger cities can make more money than if they stay in South Dakota to treat livestock, he said.
• Members of the committee said they plan to ask for changes in the tuition assistance program during next year's legislative session, because the current law requires a graduate to repay all the tuition assistance, even if they complete two or three years of the required practice in South Dakota.
• The committee says that should be changed, so a graduate who works in South Dakota for two of the required four years would have to pay back only half the tuition assistance.
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