California Veterinary Shortage Needs

You can help guide CDFA’s efforts to nominate veterinary shortage areas for USDA’s Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP). The program helps qualified veterinarians offset a significant portion of the debt incurred in pursuit of their veterinary medicine degrees in return for their service in certain high-priority veterinary shortage situations.

Nominations for veterinary shortage areas from within California are expected to open in Fall 2026 for grants to be awarded in 2027. CDFA does keep an “interested county” list, so please contact us by email at cdfa_aus@cdfa.ca.gov if you are aware of shortages in your county. To make a nomination, please fill out the CDFA Nomination Survey and recommend your area for nomination to the CA State Veterinarian*. The State Veterinarian reviews nominations submitted from local areas, regions or counties, and puts forward up to 8 nominations to the VMLRP program.

* Note: Nominating a shortage area to CDFA does not guarantee selection by the NIFA review committee.

USDA NIFA – Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) is now open for FY 2026. This program helps qualified veterinarians offset a portion of the debt incurred in pursuit of their veterinary medicine degrees (previously $25,000 per year, up to $75,000 per contract; now $40,000 per year plus $15,600 for tax liabilities ($120,000 plus $46,800 per contract) in return for 3 years of service in certain high-priority veterinary shortage situations. To view the designated shortage areas in California, please click here.

There are 3 categories of service shortages:

In order to receive this assistance, awardees will have to provide proof of service in the area, and funding may only be used to help alleviate veterinary school debt.

USDA NIFA – Veterinary Services Grant Program is now open for FY 2026 and funds have been increased to $200,000 for the Rural Practice Enhancement (RPE). Currently, funds will be distributed to current projects or previously reviewed, but unfunded, proposals. VSGP is designed to support practice enhancement initiatives, as well as education and extension activities, that will enable veterinarians, veterinary students, veterinary technicians, and veterinary technician students to gain specialized skills and provide practices with additional resources needed to more effectively mitigate veterinary service shortages in the United States. This program works hand-in-hand with the VMLRP in providing support funds for practices needing help, but without the limitation of solely funding educational loans. Previous awardees have used funds for expanding their practice, such as supplying veterinary offices with necessary equipment, sharing in reasonable directs costs of operating a qualifying veterinary practice, or establishing mobile veterinary facilities. For further information about applying, please click here.