Xavier Gathy
During the summer of 2023, I spent my time traveling, living, and working in Western Europe for an amazing three week externship experience, as well as a life-changing couple weeks of vacation afterwards. During my time there, I primarily worked in the northeast region of Italy, the Piedmont region, in Turin, before later traveling to Switzerland, Germany, and France for vacation after finishing my work. The externship was research focused and primarily centered around conducting epidemiological research connecting wildlife population density and movement of roe deer and wild boar to the ticks and other vectors they carry, seeing how common diseases they carry are then transmitted to humans and domestic pets, like cats, within the same area. The experience had everything I could ever ask for: extensive experience in the parasitology department of the veterinary school completing lab work, a beautiful national park just a couple hours away for field work setting up camera traps and collecting tick samples, and the rich culture and delicious food of the city of Turin.
On my first night in the city, I was immediately welcomed with open arms into what would be my home for the next three weeks, before embarking off for my first of many delicious Italian meals. Being my first solo journey outside of the country, I knew I would need to deeply immerse myself in the culture to get the most out of my time abroad. So for the next three weeks, from late May to late June, I balanced my time between the primary lab-focused research and exploring the city. In the lab at the University of Turin’s veterinary school, I worked with PhD students in the parasitology department on their research using camera traps that snap pictures when they detect movement. With the guidance of Dr. Stefania Zanet and Dr. Ezio Ferroglio, I shadowed and assisted the students in examining fecal floats for parasites, completing ELISA and PCR tests, as well as even assisting in some necropsies of local roadkill, particularly looking out for ticks and other ecto- and endo- parasites. My time at the lab greatly reinforced the material I had just learned at UC Davis, as we had just completed our gastrointestinal block, having just talked about conducting fecal floats and relevant GI parasites. During my time away from the campus, I made sure to absorb as much of the culture as I could, visiting the Turin Palace, multiple art and science museums, the biggest parks in the city, the famous Po River, as well as traveling to Rome, Florence, and Milan during the weekends. I’ve always been a huge fan of Italian cuisine, so I was in absolute heaven with the amazing delicacies they had to offer. I also gained a greater appreciation for their love of coffee (especially espresso) and late night meals, with many people still out eating at restaurants past 11!
I was lucky enough to be able to join the team a couple times for field work in the beautiful Piedmont mountains. These were long days, but provided some of the best memories as we trekked through rough terrain and rainy conditions to set up the camera traps on trees and sweep the area with a linen cloth for ticks. These strategically located cameras were then used to positionally track the movement of the wildlife, in combination with the tick samples being brought back and tested in the lab for identification and disease testing.
When my time in Turin came to an end, it was sad to leave the city that had become my home for three weeks, but more adventures awaited me as I traveled to explore other cultures in Switzerland, Germany, and France. Exploring Switzerland was one of the best experiences of my life, as I’ve always loved nature and Switzerland was a nature lover’s paradise, with the Alps creating beautiful landscapes and a unique mountain village culture. Afterwards, it was back to more Renaissance art museums and unique regional foods with Munich in Germany for a couple days, Nice, France for a few much needed beach days, and finally ending the trip with Paris for another culinary paradise.
Overall, my global programs trip was a life-changing experience with the externship itself providing unique, valuable experience that I would not have been able to obtain anywhere else, and the vastly different cultures expanding my awareness and understanding of European culture as well as how our own culture is a mixing pot of many different cultures. After this experience, viewing veterinary medicine in a way I’d never considered before has sparked a greater interest in other aspects of veterinary medicine and the field as a whole. This has only strengthened my interest in doing similar projects and keeping globally engaged and aware throughout my time in veterinary school and as a veterinarian.
This past summer, I also had the opportunity to assist faculty, residents and students from our school’s Herd Health service by providing health checks for animals brought to the California State Fair in Sacramento. This experience fueled my longtime interest in becoming a livestock/ public health veterinarian, since I was able to work alongside many knowledgeable and efficient livestock veterinarians. I had the opportunity to perform basic physical exams and collect urine samples for drug-testing on cattle, sheep, and goats. I also learned how to communicate with FFA/4-H students and producers, since they were all very concerned and passionate about the health and wellbeing of their animals from an agricultural perspective.
These experiences, particularly at the KLOHC and volunteering with the People and Pets Project, have given me many opportunities to work with diverse populations. Both clinics serve low-income communities that lack access to human and veterinary care services, and the Knights Landing community specifically also has a large migrant farmworker/ Spanish-speaking population as well. By being able to work with these different clinics, I gained insight into what barriers exist that may prevent people from seeking care for themselves and their pets. I also learned more about people’s motivations for seeking services, general attitudes towards the human-animal bond and the role their pet’s play in their lives. Overall, I felt that even though I did not go far for my global experience, I was still able to engage with diverse communities and increase my cultural awareness. I hope to utilize this experience and the knowledge I have gained to engage with livestock owners and rural communities and work with them to facilitate healthcare for their animals.
