Saskatchewan veterinary professor receives another award
Murray Jelinski, a bovine veterinarian at the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine, has been awarded several accolades to celebrate his achievements.
In January, he was awarded the Veterinarian of the Year award from the Western Canadian Association of Bovine Practitioners, associated with Boeihringer Ingelheim Canada.
“I was the secretary/treasurer of the Western Canadian Association of Bovine Practitioners for just over 20 years, and just retired from that position,” said Jelinski.
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“I think this award was somewhat in recognition of my long-standing involvement with the WCABP, along with other things I have done in my career,” he said.
Cheryl Waldner and Nathan Erickson, colleagues from the veterinary college, nominated him for the award.
“I’ve received several awards over my career, which has gone on for more than 40 years, and every time I get an award, I’m surprised and humbled,” said Jelinski.
He was awarded a lifetime membership to WCABP at the same time.’
Murray Jelinski scholarship
This year, WCABP created the Murray Jelinski scholarship.
“That was quite an honour as well,” said Jelinski.
During the conference, participants held an auction and raised $70,000 for the scholarship. This money will give financial assistance to students from both the WCVM and the University of Calgary’s veterinary medicine program to help students participate in internships at rural or bovine-based practices in their fourth year of study.
The new scholarship will likely be awarded twice a year and will probably be in the ballpark of $1,500 each.
“In fourth year, students have the option to go to small animal practices or large animal practices. When they go to the large animal practices, they always incur travel costs and accommodation costs. This is just to offset that, while allowing them to have a good experience at a rural practice,” he said.
Last fall, Jelinski was awarded the JJ Murison Distinguished Veterinary Award from the Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Association. He was recognized for his contributions to research, mentorship and work teaching students at the WCVM.
Jelinski grew up in Regina as one of four boys. As a child, he had close friendships with mentors and family friends who encouraged him to think of veterinary medicine as a possible career path.
He graduated from the WCVM in 1985 and opened a mixed animal practice in Moosomin, Sask. He followed that up by working in the pharmaceutical industry and at a biotech company.
Jelinski has taught at the vet college for almost 20 years and teaches veterinary business to first, second and third year students.
Research on diseases affecting cattle
He is known for his research on mycomplasma bovis and toe tip necrosis syndrome.
“Mycoplasma bovis is a bacterium that causes chronic pneumonia in feedlot cattle. It is also the number one cause of septic arthritis or infectious arthritis, which can be debilitating to cattle. It can often result in euthanasia,” he said.
The disease is common, and there weren’t many people studying it when Jelinski started looking at it about 20 years ago.
His interest was related to his brother’s veterinary work in Alberta.
Mike Jelinski is a veterinarian with Veterinary Agri-Health Services in Airdrie, a practice that specializes in feedlot cattle medicine. Jelinski and his brother have both done a lot of research on cattle in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
They have written several publications about mycoplasma bovis as it relates to antimicrobial resistance and the spread of the organism within pens and feedlots.
When Jelinski started researching toe tip necrosis about 15 years ago, no one understood the steps of the disease, which causes lameness in cattle and can often lead to euthanasia.
He said that by working with engineers and other experts, he was able to pinpoint how the disease develops.
“That was a career milestone,” he said.
“As a veterinarian, you don’t have many opportunities in your career to look at something like a new or emerging disease and be able to sort it out and come up with control measures for it.”
Toe tip necrosis is not overly common but is more prevalent in high-strung cattle.
The disease occurs when calves or yearlings are loaded off pasture and exposed to concrete floors. If the animals are not handled properly and are pushed too hard in the chutes, they’ll start pushing on other animals in front of them, and when they do that, their back hoofs rasp on the concrete as they try to get traction.
When cattle rasp their back hoofs on the concrete, the sole is worn down right at the tip of their toe.
“If you look at the underneath of the hoof, whether it’s from a horse, or sheep or cattle, there’s basically what they call the white line, and it’s where the sole of the bottom of the foot meets the sole on the side of the foot, and that’s an area of an inherent weakness in the hoof,” he said.
The white line is damaged and bacteria starts to grow inside it and move from the joint to the hoof. Once that happens, the animals become lame, and the bone within the joint becomes infected.
Most often, these animals have to be euthanized because they become lame, and it turns into an animal welfare issue.
Jelinski serves as the Alberta chair in beef cattle health and beef production medicine, a position established long before the U of C started its School of Veterinary Medicine.
This position is funded by the Alberta government, the Alberta Cattle Feeders Association, the Alberta Beef Producers and the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association. It was created to encourage students to apply to veterinary school and to look at cattle diseases related to production.
Retaining vets and mentorship
Jelinski said graduates from WCVM are more likely to go into rural practices, but they tend to leave within a few years.
“It’s always been a retention problem. We produce enough veterinarians to build a market, but we don’t retain enough,” he said.
Young veterinarians are likely to leave rural practices due to long hours and lack of mentorship.
“I talk to a lot of new graduates when they come around to fourth year because I’ve taught them their business courses, and they’re getting job offers and contracts, and I’ll go through their contracts with them. They’re seeking mentorship and they want mentorship. The clinics that are larger have the time to devote to mentorship and they’re the ones that can attract and retain veterinarians,” he said.
Jelinski regularly meets with his own mentors.
“It’s important for the students, for the mentee to go seek out mentors,” he said.
“It doesn’t work the other way. I’m not going to chase after students to be their mentor, but if they want to come see me, I’m happy to be their mentor.”
Source: producer.com