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By SEAN CLOUGHERTY
Associate Editor

DOVER, Del. — The Delaware Department of Agriculture has begun its search for a state veterinary after Dr. Sarah Busch left the department in April and with a national shortage of qualified veterinarians, the search could last several months.
Busch left the department on April 11, according to Bob Moore, supervisor-veterinary assistant for the department’s Poultry and Animal Health and Food Products Inspections section, after becoming Delaware’s state veterinarian in December 2006.
Busch filled an eight-month vacancy after Dr. Michael Vanderklok left the job for personal reasons in April of that year.
Vanderklok was Delaware’s state veterinarian for less than a month and replaced Dr. H. Wesley Towers, who retired in 2005 and had held the job since 1969.
Dr. Caroline Hughes, veterinarian and food products inspections administrator at the department, is serving as acting state veterinarian until the position is filled.
Under Busch’s term, Hughes said, the Poultry and Animal Health section and the Food Products Inspections section were merged together and the state veterinarian, now officially named Veterinary Medical Officer, oversees the merged section.
Hughes said though she is covering two positions, the section “has staff with many years of experience and the staff has supplied me with support in performing and meeting the duties for the section.”
Moore said the section “has quite a lot on their plate,” but none of the section’s essential duties have suffered.
“We’re doing our best to keep everything going,” he said.
Hughes said there is a “significant national shortage” for veterinarians with experience in large animals, which reduces the pool of qualified candidates for state veterinarian.
The shortage is so great that the American Veterinary Medical Association has championed the Veterinary Public Health Workforce Expansion Act to encourage veterinarians to pursue work in the public sector.
She added veterinarians qualified for the public sector are already working there, at other states or at the federal level and graduating veterinarians largely head to private practice working mostly with companion animals.
“It’s a totally different job,” Moore said of the state position. “With a small state, our state vet gets out in the field quite a bit and then there’s all the administrative duties as well. It can be a pretty big load.”
According to Delaware’s state job listing Web site, the State Veterinary Medical Officer position is open and accepting applications.
Its closing date is scheduled for May 30.