America's first statutory veterinary college, founded 1894, pioneering animal and public health education.
The College of Veterinary Medicine offers a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) program with instruction in biological medicine, primary and referral veterinary care at the Cornell University Hospital for Animals, and small animal community practice. Graduate programs include a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) addressing municipal, state, national, and international public health issues, and a Master of Professional Studies (M.P.S.) in veterinary parasitology for working professionals. The college also houses an interdisciplinary Biomedical and Biological Sciences Ph.D. program with tracks in basic, clinical, and translational research, available as a standalone Ph.D. or combined Ph.D./D.V.M. degree.
The college is home to six academic departments, six centers, and four institutes, including the Baker Institute for Animal Health, the Duffield Institute for Animal Behavior, and the Sprecher Institute for Comparative Cancer Research. Notable achievements include development of the Coggins test for equine infectious anemia (1970), the modified live-virus vaccine for canine parvovirus (early 1980s), the first puppies born by in vitro fertilization (2015), and the Cornell COVID-19 Testing Laboratory (2020), which processed over 2 million tests by April 2022.
The Cornell University Hospital for Animals comprises seven facilities across New York and Connecticut, including the Companion Animal Hospital, Cornell Equine Hospital, Nemo Farm Animal Hospital, Cornell Ruffian Equine Specialists, Janet L. Swanson Wildlife Hospital, Cornell University Veterinary Specialists, and the Small Animal Community Practice. In fiscal year 2021, the hospital treated 30,083 cases, with canine patients comprising the majority (20,056), followed by feline (4,761), equine (1,429), and other species. The college also operates an Animal Health Diagnostic Center serving New York State and beyond.
Cornell became the first American university to include a professor of veterinary medicine (1868) and awarded the first D.V.M. degree in the United States to Daniel Elmer Salmon (1876). The college was formally established by New York state Legislature in 1894 and officially opened in 1896. Florence Kimball became the first woman in the US to earn a veterinary doctorate (1910), and Kirksey L. Curd became Cornell's first Black D.V.M. graduate (1912). Patricia O'Connor Halloran became the first female zoo veterinarian in 1942.