Antimicrobial Use and Stewardship
CDFA-AUS • 1220 N Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 • 916-576-0300- Home
- Antimicrobial Stewardship
- Policy
- Surveys & Studies
- FFLDRS Livestock Drug Program
- Outreach
- About AUS
-
VFD Resources
- CA Veterinary Shortage Needs
California Veterinary Shortage Needs
The VMLRP and VSGP application period for 2025 will open soon.
| Are you a veterinarian looking for veterinary education loan repayment help? If so, jump to the VMLRP section below. | |
| Are you a veterinarian looking for financial assistance in your practice that will serve a veterinary shortage area? If so, jump to the VSGP section below. |
Nominate your area!
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.
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.
VMLRP - USDA NIFA Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program
USDA NIFA – Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) is opening soon for applications. This program helps qualified veterinarians offset a portion of the debt incurred in pursuit of their veterinary medicine degrees (up to $25,000/year) 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.
VSGP - USDA NIFA Veterinary Services Grant Program
USDA NIFA – Veterinary Services Grant Program is opening soon for applications. 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.
Important dates to remember!
|
2025
|
January 2025USDA NIFA Veterinary Services Grant Program (VSGP) is expected to open for applications. |
|
2025
|
February 2025USDA Veterinary Medical Loan Repayment Plan (VMLRP) is open for applications. Designated Shortage Situations for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 will be posted by the end of January on USDA NIFA VMLRP website. Veterinarians may apply to fulfill these shortage needs through VMLRP or VSGP. Note: It is strongly recommended for VSGP applicants to register early (at least 5 weeks before the application deadline) with Grants.gov prior to submitting an application. |
|
2025
|
Spring 2025USDA VMLRP and VSGP application period for FY 2025 closes. Please note that the VMLP deadline is in April 2025, and that the deadline for VSGP is in March 2025 (exact dates to be announced in January 2025). A recently implemented requirement is a Letter of Intent (LOI) for VMLRP. Specific instructions are available in the VMLRP RFA, which is due in April 2025 (date to be announced in January 2025). This is separate from the VMLRP application due in April 2025 (to be announced in January 2025). The VMLRP LOI is often due several weeks in advance of the application itself. Please take this into consideration in application planning. For additional application deadlines, please visit the USDA NIFA VMLRP website and the USDA NIFA VSGP website. |
|
2025
|
Fall 2025USDA VMLRP FY 2026 Shortage Situation nomination period opens. CDFA will accept Nomination Surveys throughout the year until the close of the nomination cycle. |
|
2025
|
September 2025Once the USDA VMLRP FY 2025 Shortage Situation nomination period closes, CDFA will continue to accept Nomination Surveys for the next nomination period on an ongoing basis. The next CDFA Nomination Survey period will close at the end of September 2025. Fill out the CDFA Nomination Survey to recommend your area for Nomination to the CA State Veterinarian*. CDFA Nomination Surveys can be completed online or emailed to the CDFA AUS program for CDFA's consideration for nomination to USDA for the upcoming fiscal year. The deadline for the 2026 nomination cycle will be September 30, 2025.
Note: Nominating a shortage area to CDFA does not guarantee selection by the NIFA review committee.
For more information on VMLRP Shortage Situations, visit the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture website. |
Frequently Asked Questions
As the State Veterinarian is responsible for gathering and composing the application, we are seeking information from county and local representatives who know their regions better than we do.
The State Veterinarian reviews nominations submitted from local areas, regions or counties, and puts forward up to 8 nominations to the VMLRP program. USDA’s VMLRP program reviews applications nationwide and makes the selections. States, including California, have no role in the actual selection process.