What you need to know about the rise of vector borne diseases

🤎
Increasing Diversity in Vet Med

If animal health takes a team, then it’s important to build high-performing and successful teams which are diverse, inclusive, and promote a culture of belonging. And the data backs it up:

• Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 36% more likely to have above-average financial returns.
  Source: McKinsey, Diversity Wins, 2020

• Organizations with above-average diversity on management teams reported 19% higher innovation revenues 
  Source: BCG, How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation, 2018

• Diverse teams make better business decisions up to 87% of the time compared to individual decision-makers.
  Source: Cloverpop, Hacking Diversity with Inclusive Decision-Making, 2017

That is why we were thrilled to see some great coverage this week on the lack of racial diversity in veterinary medicine. As Insights into Academia reported, as of January 2025, only 1.2% of veterinarians are Black, 3.6% are Asian, and 8.5% are Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine (TUCVM) has played a crucial role in addressing this diversity gap, educating over 70% of Black and 10% of Hispanic and Latino veterinarians in the U.S. However, Ebony Gilbreath, Associate Dean at Tuskegee University, emphasized the persistent racial homogeneity in the profession:

TUCVM’s commitment to supporting its students dates back to its founding by Dr. Frederick D. Patterson, a leader in advancing educational equity. Patterson, who also founded the United Negro College Fund, established the veterinary school in 1945, and it has since graduated over 3,000 veterinarians.

Today, through efforts like the TVMAA Endowed Scholarship and major gifts from donors, TUCVM continues to reduce financial barriers and provide mentorship and internship opportunities, ensuring that future veterinarians from diverse backgrounds have the support they need to succeed.

Separately, episode 3 of the AAHA’s newest podcast, From the SOAP Box, featured Judy Rose Lanier on what DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) looks like in veterinary medicine:

🍬 
A deep dive on Mars

The authors of this newsletter are big podcaster listeners, and one of our favorites is Acquired. Each episode tells the full story of great companies - from their founding, growth, mistakes, acquisitions, and more. It’s a gold mine of business insights, and fascinating to hear the long and sometimes tumultuous histories of companies that have become mainstays in our life.

At the end of every episode, the hosts always list what they call “carve outs”, which is a chance for them to carve out space to talk about recommendations from their personal lives which aren’t sponsored. Sometimes it’s TV shows, products, clothes, you name it.

Today, we’d like to do a carve out for Acquired’s episode on Mars, Inc. The nearly 4-hour episode is an amazing overview of the notoriously private company and the CEO who built the business into what it is today, Forrest Mars.

Most of the episode understandably focuses on the chocolate empire, and the innovations behind it.. from the invention of milk chocolate, to perfecting mass production, to selling M&Ms exclusively to the U.S. military because the chocolate doesn’t melt, to the unique open-concept office concept and employee compensation structure that Mars, Inc. has used from the beginning. We could learn a lot about business strategy from Forrest Mars. But there were also a few good nuggets on the veterinary business:

• Mars has been in the pet industry longer than you think. It acquired its first brand, CHAPPIE canned dog food in the UK in 1935.

• In 2002, Mars buys French pet-food company Royal Canin. As a specialty dog food, it is likely this acquisition that proved the validity of the pet business to Mars. They were now in on the ground-floor of the pet boom as more pets were being treated like family members and their care reflected it.

By shifting their acquisitions away from just goods and towards services (e.g. clinics and hospitals), Mars could then control the production and distribution. This kicked off a 15-year stretch that would completely change the shape of Mars, Inc.

• In 2007 Mars purchases a stake in Banfield Pet Hospitals, which at the time were in partnership with PetSmart.

• In 2015 Mars completes the buyout of PetSmart for total ownership of Banfield Pet Hospital—and acquires BluePearl Specialty and Emergency Pet Hospital, officially resulting in the Mars Petcare segment of their business.

• In 2017 they acquired VCA, the largest independent vet hospital in the U.S.

• In 2018 Mars acquires Linnaeus in the UK and AniCura

• 2020 - Mars Petcare Expands in Asia by acquiring VSH Hong Kong, Veterinary Emergency & Specialty (VES) Hospital Singapore, and Asia Veterinary Diagnostics.

And with their chocolatey hands firmly in the goods and services side of the value chain, in 2022 they officially created a new Science & Diagnostics division before acquiring Heska and SYNLAB Vet, to accelerate R&D and expand their animal diagnostics globally.

As a privately held company, the company’s financial statements are not widely known. In fact, Mars is a notoriously private company whose leadership group does not do many public interviews. But what we do know is that in 2024, they did “over $50 Billion” in annual revenue. Just $18B (or about 36%) of that was from Mars Snacking - the products that the company was founded on and is best known for.

That means that pet care is the much larger business for them: 59% of their revenue comes from it and of the 140,000 employees at Mars, over 100,000 work in pet care. Mars owns over 3,000 veterinary locations out of the approximately 35-40,000 in the U.S. which makes them the largest provider (7-8% of total vet clinics).

In September 2022, Poul Weihrauch, the former head of the pet care division took over as CEO and President of Mars. The entire company - including chocolate and snacking - is now led by a pet care executive. At this point, they are more of a pet care company that also happens to make candy, not the other way around.

Listen on Spotify, YouTube, or the Acquired website. If you’re interested in more lengthy business analysis, some of our favorite episodes are on Costco, Nintendo, Starbucks, Microsoft, and the NFL.

💉 
FDA Updates Regulations on Librela

Long time readers of the newsletter will know that we’ve been covering the story around Librela for quite some time.

We first covered it in two editions last April and asked for your experiences using Librela. Then February of this year, Zoetis, made updates to the drug’s label in response.

If you haven’t been following along, and don’t want to read through old editions of Weekend Rounds, here’s the TL;DR:

• April 2024 - The Wall Street Journal published a report featuring interviews with pet owners who feel Librela was responsible for the death or serious health deterioration of their dogs.

• October 2024 - A class-action lawsuit claimed Zoetis failed to properly warn pet owners about the dangers of the drug

• December 2024 - the FDA writes a letter to veterinarians about adverse events reported in dogs treated with Librela

• February 2025 - Zoetis updates the labeling on Librela

And now the most recent chapter in 2025, as the FDA has followed suit, with new guidelines for vets when prescribing Librela. The most notable changes include:

• Veterinarians must always provide the Client Information Sheet and discuss potential adverse drug events with the dog owner prior to administering each injection of Librela

• New sections were added on:

  • Adverse Reactions

  • Information for Dog Owners 

  • Client Information Sheet 

For more information, visit the FDA.

🐛 
Spring: The Season of the Ticks

The warmer temperatures outside mean mosquitos and ticks are soon to be back with a vengeance in large parts of the U.S. and Canada. Thankfully, the the Companion Animal Parasite Council has put out their 2025 annual forecast for canine lyme, ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis, and heartworm. A practice they have done since since 2012, with >94% accuracy in predicting the true prevalence of these four diseases.

It’s no surprise that with urban sprawl and climate change wreaking havoc on natural wetlands and biodiversity the incidence of vector borne disease is on the ride year-over-year. Dare we say this would be a good time to brush up on your diagnostic and treatment skills with Dr. Erin Lashnits?

Over nine easy-to-understand lessons, Dr. Lashnits covers everything from the basics of anaplasma, ehrlichia, and lyme disease to the nuances of testing, treatment, and interpretation of results.

Here are the forecasts:

🚀 
Quick Hits

Here are some of the other stories that caught our eye and we're following this week from around the veterinary world and animal kingdom: