How Texas A&M’s Veterinary Emergency Team gets disaster-ready

Version 2 — Full analysis

The Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team has become one of the clearest examples of how veterinary medicine fits into modern disaster response. The team deploys when local jurisdictions or emergency partners request help, bringing veterinary care to companion animals, livestock, and working search-and-rescue dogs in the field. Texas A&M describes VET as the largest veterinary emergency response team of its kind in the country, with a mission that combines real-world deployment and year-round training. (vetmed.tamu.edu)

That model has been built over time. Texas A&M says VET was established in 2009 and has since responded to hurricanes, floods, wildfires, tornadoes, winter storms, explosions, and animal disease events. The team’s response history includes support during Hurricane Harvey, the West fertilizer plant explosion, and out-of-state shelter operations during California wildfire response. Just as important, VET is embedded in veterinary education through a fourth-year clinical rotation that prepares students to work within emergency management systems rather than outside them. (experts.tamu.edu)

The recent picture of VET’s work comes through Texas A&M’s July 17, 2026, update on Central Texas flooding. In that deployment, the team was sent as a state resource to support search-and-rescue operations and provide veterinary care for Texas A&M Task Force and federal working dogs, with the expectation that its mission could expand into emergency animal sheltering and broader community animal-health support. Texas A&M said the initial deployment included 13 faculty and staff members, four fourth-year veterinary students, and two Texas A&M AgriLife disaster assessment and recovery agents handling logistics. The university also noted a regional New World screwworm concern, adding another layer to field triage and surveillance planning. (experts.tamu.edu)

The dvm360 coverage adds useful operational context for private practitioners because it frames deployment as both response and preparation. That’s consistent with Texas A&M’s broader messaging to pet parents and communities: plan evacuation routes, prepare animal go-bags, identify safe destinations in advance, and rehearse emergency procedures before disaster strikes. In other words, VET’s field mission is paired with a preventive mission, and that same dual role applies to veterinary practices that may suddenly need to function as both care sites and community information hubs. (experts.tamu.edu)

Industry guidance broadly supports that approach. In an April 8, 2025, dvm360 interview, Link Welborn, DVM, DABVP, said one of the biggest challenges in disasters is figuring out where help is actually needed and argued that veterinarians should work through state VMAs and coordinated response structures rather than acting independently. He also pointed to microchipping as a top preparedness step for pet parents because reunification becomes much harder when displaced animals lack permanent identification. AAHA’s disaster-prep standards similarly call for written emergency plans, evacuation procedures, backup lighting and power, and plans for containment and life-sustaining care. AVMA’s practice-preparedness materials add relocation planning for boarded and hospitalized animals, transport arrangements, off-site access to client contacts, and continuity planning for operations after the event. (dvm360.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, Texas A&M’s VET is a reminder that disaster medicine is no longer peripheral. It touches emergency care, shelter medicine, public health, livestock support, client communication, and workforce training. Clinics don’t need a university-scale response unit to borrow the same principles: define who leads in a crisis, know how hospitalized animals would be moved, secure records access, maintain supply redundancy, and establish referral and communication pathways before severe weather hits. As disasters become more complex, the practices that fare best will likely be the ones that treat preparedness as a clinical and operational competency, not an afterthought. (ebusiness.avma.org)

There’s also a workforce implication. Texas A&M’s use of veterinary students in supervised deployments suggests one path for building disaster readiness into core professional training, not just continuing education. That could matter as the profession faces repeated climate-related emergencies, zoonotic disease concerns, and increasing expectations from communities and emergency agencies that veterinary teams can plug into coordinated response systems. (experts.tamu.edu)

What to watch: The next question is whether more colleges, health systems, and private-practice networks adopt similarly formal disaster frameworks, and whether VET’s recent flood-response work pushes even more attention toward integrated planning for sheltering, working-dog care, livestock support, and disease surveillance. (experts.tamu.edu)