IAMS Sponsors Nutrition Internship
The College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) is the recipient of a grant from IAMS® Brand Pet Food to create a nutrition-focused small animal internship that will help interns explore how proper nutrition can promote health, fight disease, and support patient management in the CVM Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
IAMS, a brand of P&G Pet Care, a division of Procter and Gamble, is supporting two consecutive one-year internships that will offer a training opportunity for veterinary graduates who are interested in advanced studies involving clinical nutrition and selected areas of small animal veterinary medicine. The funding supports necessary program and training expenditures, seminar and travel expenses, and salary and benefits associated with the intern activity.
“The internship will not only help us promote our clinical nutrition program, it will increase awareness of nutrition’s role in maintaining health, managing diseases, and in patient care and recovery,” says Dr. Korinn Saker, an associate professor of clinical nutrition who will manage the program. “The program also involves nutrition-related studies and professional development and allows the intern additional clinical experience and opportunities to hone necessary skills.”
Dr. Saker, who consults with referring veterinarians and with hospital clinicians on the nutritional requirements of patients, also conducts research and her program investigations have involved obesity and cancer in animals. The results from these and other studies have direct implications not only for dogs and cats, but will also benefit human health and well being.
Program participants, who must hold a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree, will divide their time and efforts between nutrition-related activities and associated training in such small animal specialties as medicine, surgery, emergency critical care, dermatology, and oncology.
“We are delighted to support an IAMS intern at the NC State CVM,” says Dr. Susan Giovengo, Manager-Professional Relations, P&G Pet Care. “The goal is to contribute to the development of thought-leading veterinarians who will be partners in our mission of enhancing the well-being of dogs and cats.”
This is the second formal collaboration between CVM and IAMS to improve the health of animals. In 2004, the company partnered with the CVM to establish the IAMS Pet Imaging Center, the region’s first MRI facility dedicated solely for use on pets and domestic animals.
Posted July 11, 2008
