For qualified students, the Department of Animal Science offers an accelerated MS degree program for individuals pursuing a doctor in veterinary medicine degree. Central to this program is that a qualified veterinary student may have up to 9 credit hours of veterinary medicine courses count toward both the doctor of veterinary medicine degree and the MS degree. To this end, a student may earn the DVM and MS in about five to five-and-a-half years rather than the six to six-and-a-half years that otherwise would be required.
Normally, students will be considered for conditional admission to the program during, or following, their first year of veterinary medicine study at the University of Tennessee, College of Veterinary Medicine. Because the MS program requires that a student write a thesis based on original research, efforts related to identifying a graduate mentor (i.e., major professor) and starting a research-based project in consultation with a graduate advisory committee (that meets MS committee requirements) are appropriate in and around or following their first year of veterinary study.
The major professor, an animal science faculty member at the rank of assistant professor or above, chairs the student's graduate advisory committee. The student and major professor select the other members of the advisory committee which should contain at least two other faculty members at the rank of assistant professor or above, one of whom may be outside the Animal Science Department. The student's advisory committee assists in the planning of course work and may require specific courses in addition to those required by the Animal Science graduate program. The student's graduate advisory committee also aids in formulating an appropriate research project and assesses achievement of other degree requirements, including the research proposal and thesis defense.
Areas of research emphasis are animal physiology (e.g. ruminant and monogastric nutrition, reproduction, stress, and obesity), health and well-being (e.g. immunology, microbiology, pre-harvest food safety and behavior), and genomics. Programs emphasize experiential learning with animal species, including beef and dairy cattle, poultry, swine, small ruminants, and animal models for human disease. See the Department graduate program website for a listing of graduate research faculty and their specific research focus areas.