The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine was honored with Legislative Resolution #130 on April 30, 2023, highlighting its positive impact and key achievements on the advent of its 75th anniversary. The resolution,  sponsored by Senator Bill Dodd and Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, emphasizes the school’s pioneering accomplishments over the years and how it continues to lead veterinary medicine today.

The resolution describes the school’s progress since its emergence. It recounts the official establishment of the school and approval of the DVM program in 1946, the creation of the MPVM program as the nation’s first veterinary public health degree in 1967, the opening of the nation’s first veterinary medical teaching hospital in 1970, the opening of the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center at the heart of California’s dairy industry in Tulare in 1983, and the establishment of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System to safeguard the health of California’s livestock and poultry in 1988.

The resolution repeatedly emphasizes that the school continues in excellence and service today. For example, UC Davis continues to rank #1 among veterinary schools nationwide. It goes on to state that the school launched the world’s first shelter medicine program in 2000; the Veterinary Scientist Training Program (dual DVM Ph.D. program) in 2001; and renewed the comparative oncology program that is a partnership between the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and Veterinary Medicine in 2021.

It recounts the launching of the One Health Institute to solve global complex health and conservation problems in 2009, the formation of the Wildlife Disaster Network for disaster response in 2020, and the formation of the California Veterinary Emergency Team (C-VET) for statewide emergency veterinary response in 2022. The resolution ends with the statement that in 2023, the school “continues to proudly serve the State, advancing the health of animals, people, and the planet, while educating the nation’s best veterinary scientists, practitioners, and leaders.”