Introduction

College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), Nanjing Agricultural University, has a history of almost a century, and was first established in 1921 as Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine of Southeast University, one of the earliest departments of animal husbandry and veterinary medicine in China. In 1927, the department was part of Central University. In 1952, the nationwide reorganization of colleges and universities made the department part of Nanjing Agricultural College. In 1984, when Nanjing Agricultural College was renamed Nanjing Agricultural University, the original Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine was divided and separately established as Department of Animal Science and Department of Veterinary Medicine. Finally, in 1994, with the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Veterinary Medicine was promoted as College of Veterinary Medicine of Nanjing Agricultural University.

College of Veterinary Medicinenowranksthefirst class institution in terms of discipline construction enjoying a high international reputation. The college used to be the convener of the Disciplinary Appraisal Group of Veterinary Medicine, China Academic Degrees & Graduate Education Development Centre, Ministry of Education (MOE), and is now home to the Secretariat and the vice chairman of the National Veterinary Professional Degree Teaching Guidance Committee. In 1995, a post-doctoral research station was approved and established in the college. In 1998, the college was qualified with the status ofthe first-class disciplinein veterinary medicine with the authority of awarding PhD degree and master’sdegree, and in 1999 was granted the authority of awarding professional degrees for in-service PhD candidates and graduate students. In terms of research platforms, the collegehasthe Key Laboratory of Animal Bacteriology of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Key Laboratory of Animal Physiology and Biochemistry of the Ministry of Agriculture, the OIE Reference Laboratory of Streptococcus suis, modern animal experiment centers, etc. The discipline of veterinary medicine was rated as a National Key Discipline in 2007, and in 2010, it was rated as a superior discipline in Jiangsu Province.

CVM consists of three departments, involving the oretical Veterinary Medicine, Preventive Veterinary Medicine, and Clinical Veterinary Medicine. The Department of Theoretical Veterinary Medicine has the research groups of Animal Anatomy, Animal Histology and Embryology, Animal Physiology, Animal Biochemistry, Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Veterinary Pathology. The Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine has the groups of Veterinary Microbiology and Immunology, Animal Infectious Disease and Epidemiology, and Animal Parasitology. The Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine has the groups of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Veterinary Surgery, Veterinary Obstetrics, and Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine. The college also has several research institutions, such as those of the Livestock Physiology Laboratory, Animal Parasitology Laboratory, Fish Diseases and Fish Medicine Research Laboratory, Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases of Livestock and Poultry Laboratory, Chinese Veterinary Research Laboratory, Small Animal Disease Research Laboratory, Livestock and Vaccine Engineering Center, Veterinary Drug Development Center, Veterinary Drug Residue Testing Center, and Livestock and Poultry Disease Testing Center. The college also has two affiliated teaching and research bases: the animal hospital and the animal experiment center, and it is home to an academic Journal of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicineunder the administration of Ministry of Education. The journal was founded in 1935.

College of Veterinary Medicine has 128 faculty and staff members, including 45 professors, 26 associate professors. More than 90% of the full-time teachers have doctoral degrees; 38 of the teachers aredoctoral supervisors and 66 are master's supervisors.The teachers have won over 50 honors ofnational and provincial talents, and have formed three research and innovation teams supported by Ministry of Agriculture.

CVM has undertaken many national and provincial scientific research projects such as the National “973” Program, the National Key R&D Special Project, the National Transgenic Project,a series of special programs funded for scientific research on public welfare, and programs sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.Totally, the college has received, since the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, over 50 million RMB every year, has published about 200 SCI papers, has developed the porcine circovirus in activated vaccine and the attenuated vaccine against porcine blue ear disease, which were respectively awarded the national second and third class new veterinary drug certificates and were successfully transformed into production by manufacturers, earning for the college atransferfee of over 50 million yuanRMB.The most honorable is the research program Study on Streptococcus disease and its prevention and control won the Second Prize National Award for Science and Technology Progress in 2007.

In terms of talent cultivation,CVM has trained more than 9,000 undergraduate and graduate studentsin the nine decades, many of whom have become well-known scientists, industrialists and industry managers at home and abroad. At present, the college has 875 undergraduate students, 154 full-time doctoral students (including 33 international students), 446 full-time postgraduates (including three international students), 52 in-service professional doctorate students, and 100 in-service professional master students. In order to reward outstanding undergraduates and postgraduates in moral, intellectual and physicalattainment, the college has established 20 scholarships, including the “Luo Qingsheng Scholarship”; in addition to those government-funded and university-sponsoredscholarships.

CVM is getting more and more active in international academic exchanges and in developing an internationalized school running mode. In the past five years, nearly 100 teachers have been abroad doing short-termvisit orstudy, working on doctoral degrees, and joining in cooperative research. The college has also established cooperative relations with relevantuniversities and research institutions in the United States, Japan, Canada, Denmark, Australia, the United Kingdom, Spain and other countries, and established an inter-university relationship with TiHo Hanoverof Germany. Since 2013, CVM has launched an international high-levelveterinary continuing education program in Nanjing with UC DavisSchool of Veterinary Medicine. Moreover, the college has attracted a large number of international studentsto come for further education and has offered and hosted 20 international training courses on veterinary acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine.

Looking forward to the future, all the faculty, staff and students of CVM will be more enthusiastic inseeking truth and scientific innovation to realizethe goal of building a world-class research-oriented college!