University of Guelph, Ontario Veterinary College

Guelph, Ontario, Canada

• Turning 150 next year, the Ontario Veterinary College is the oldest veterinary school in Canada and the United States. It began in Toronto in 1862, moved to Guelph in 1922, and was a founding college of the University of Guelph in 1964. A timeline celebrates important events in the school’s history from 1862 to 2010.
• Andrew Smith, a veterinary surgeon from Scotland, founded the veterinary program that later became the Ontario Veterinary College. In 1862, Smith began giving public lectures on “the veterinary art” in Toronto. The lectures were so popular that, in 1864, he began offering a regular course in veterinary science. Smith’s course followed the British model of two six-month sessions over two years, culminating in examinations.
• Moving the Ontario Veterinary College to Guelph in 1922 gave the school a closer relationship with the Ontario Agriculture College and the livestock industry.
• The Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses (CPHAZ) was established at the college in 2006. (Zoonoses are diseases that can be transmitted from animals to people, like rabies or anthrax.) The centre’s mandate is “to provide focus and leadership for research, education, and knowledge dissemination in public health at the human-animal-environment interface.”
• The Center for Veterinary Medicine’s director, Bernadette Dunham, DVM, PhD, is an alumna.