Large animal medicine programs cover nearly all animals typically considered livestock. Most of these programs focus on animals used by the agricultural industry, including sheep, goats, pigs, cows, other bovine animals and even deer and camelids such as alpacas and llamas. Large animal programs teach students how to work with all of these animals, though participants specialize in areas such as beef cattle, large wild animals such as deer, elk and bison, or large animal surgery. Equine programs, for horses, are sometimes integrated into large animal programs and sometimes run separately. Horses are not considered livestock.
Washington State University has a special program for agricultural animals that covers sheep, cows, camelids, deer, elk, bison and moose. Students at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts can specialize in large animal medicine through the Department of Clinical Sciences. The College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University hosts a Department of Large Animal Clinical Science with a focus on horses that nonetheless covers all agricultural animals. The University of Georgia, Texas A&M and University of Pennsylvania all offer large animal science programs.
Students at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine can learn to care for large animals including livestock through the Bolton Center. This facility, set on 700 acres, provides care for horses, cattle, camelids, pigs, goats, sheep and other large animals. Washington State University has an agricultural animal section in its teaching hospital. Through this program, students learn about large animals of all kinds. Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine offers students the chance to work hands on at the school's Hospital for Large Animals, which cares for livestock and agricultural animals in New England.
The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine's Department of Large Animal Medicine focuses on research and care with regards to general disease in large "production and performance" animals such as horses, cows, sheep, goats, llamas and pigs. The Department of Clinical Sciences at Cummings specializes in research on comparative pulmonology, liver disease and coronary artery disease in large and small animals. Washington State University allows students to specialize in agricultural animal medicine, surgery, theriogenology (breeding), camelid medicine and surgery, and wildlife animals.