Faculty members, staff and students from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine will be on hand this year, as they have for the past 25 years, to make sure that all the farm animals born at the fair and their moms are healthy and well cared for. The Livestock Nursery is one of six animal-care programs that the veterinary crew conducts at the fair, which starts Friday, Aug. 18, said Ben Norman, UC Davis Extension veterinarian emeritus. Davis employees even use their personal vacation time to work at the fair. All exhibit animals, such as elephants and camels, get a general health check.
Any animal injured at the nightly rodeo receives care.
At the Livestock Nursery, Norman said, the staff will help deliver babies from 25 to 30 cows, seven sows, four to eight ewes and six goats during the 18 days of the fair. The concept of conducting a fair nursery was begun by UC Davis and is now emulated by fairs across the country. Student Lisa Fink, who plans to graduate from the veterinary school in 2002, is Norman's student chief for the fair. She'll supervise the 30 UC Davis veterinary students who will be taking shifts at the fair nursery. Davis Food Animal Medicine Service will support Norman's efforts part of the time by checking in animals and supervising some of the births.