This Report Shows Where Veterinary Medicine Is Heading (And It's Not What You Think)

Corporate consolidation in veterinary medicine gets a lot of heat. Fair enough. But Mars Veterinary Health's 2025 Science Impact Report raises an uncomfortable question: what if corporate scale enables research that fundamentally advances the profession?

500+ peer-reviewed publications in a single year, drawn from data on millions of pets, with contributions from 70,000 veterinary professionals across three continents. That's not just corporate flexing. That's a research infrastructure that didn't exist in veterinary medicine a decade ago.

The Training Pipeline You Should Know About

Buried in the report is information that matters if you're a student, new grad, or mid-career veterinarian considering your next move: Mars Veterinary Health supported the clinical education and specialty development of more than 1,500 veterinary student externs, nearly 500 rotating and specialty interns, and close to 350 residents in 2024.

Those numbers represent opportunity. As a leading employer of board-certified veterinary specialists, Mars provides mentoring and coaching from some of the most experienced professionals in the field. That access to specialty training and mentorship is hard to replicate in independent practice.

If you're interested in oncology, neurology, or emergency medicine, corporate networks have invested in MRI machines, ICUs, and oncology services that are genuinely difficult to sustain in solo practices. The BluePearl Blood Bank alone represents infrastructure that benefits the entire profession, not just Mars-owned hospitals.

The Data Advantage

Here's what corporate scale enables: Mars Veterinary Health's Medical Affairs Science Team has access to anonymized data from millions of annual pet visits across the global network. That dataset allows for database research projects that can generate insights quickly enough to be clinically relevant.

When you're trying to make evidence-based decisions about treatment protocols, research based on thousands or tens of thousands of cases is more useful than research based on dozens. Mars has the scale to conduct that research routinely.

The Mars Petcare Biobank plans to enroll 20,000 dogs and cats, collecting clinical, genetic, and lifestyle data that could become the largest resource of its kind. That kind of longitudinal, comprehensive data collection is nearly impossible outside of corporate infrastructure.

The Standardization Question

Standardized protocols across a large network allow for consistent clinical guidelines backed by research. That's both good and potentially limiting. On one hand, evidence-based protocols developed from massive datasets should improve patient care. On the other hand, veterinary medicine has always valued clinical judgment and individual practice style.

The report shows Mars funding research that shapes how diseases are understood and treated. That influence on the profession is real and worth considering. Corporate-funded research isn't inherently biased, but it does reflect the priorities and questions that corporate interests find important.

One Health and Public Health

Mars's One Health research connects veterinary medicine to broader public health in ways that matter for career trajectories. If you're interested in epidemiology, infectious disease, or public health, corporate networks are increasingly where that work happens.

Identifying novel rabies variants, detecting cross-species disease transmission, studying antimicrobial resistance at scale... these aren't traditional private practice research topics. They require resources, infrastructure, and cross-institutional collaboration that corporate networks can provide.

The pharmaceutical stewardship research alone positions veterinary medicine as a key player in addressing antimicrobial resistance, one of the biggest public health threats globally. That raises the profile and importance of veterinary medicine in ways that benefit the entire profession.

The Access to Care Framework

The Access to Veterinary Care metrics developed with Michigan State University represent something important: corporate resources applied to a problem that affects the entire profession, not just corporate practices.

Access to care is one of the biggest challenges facing veterinary medicine. Having consistent metrics and a research framework to study it benefits everyone, from independent practices to corporate networks to the pets and families struggling to afford care.

What This Means for Your Decisions

If you're deciding between corporate and independent practice, this report won't make your decision easier. It will, however, give you better information about what corporate scale enables.

Research infrastructure, specialty training programs, sustainable practice initiatives, public health contributions... these are genuine advantages of corporate networks. They're also priorities that corporate interests chose to invest in. Other priorities (practice autonomy, innovation, local community relationships) might be easier to pursue in independent practice.

The profession is heading toward a future where research, specialty training, and large-scale data analysis are increasingly concentrated in corporate networks. That's not inherently good or bad. It's simply the landscape we're navigating.

The Bottom Line

Mars Veterinary Health's 2025 Science Impact Report shows what's possible when corporate resources meet veterinary medicine. 500+ publications, breakthrough Owner Reported Outcomes tools, sustainability at scale, access to care research, specialty training for hundreds of residents annually.

These contributions to the profession are real. They're also coming from a corporation that now earns more revenue from pet care than from candy.

Understanding that complexity, rather than reflexively celebrating or condemning corporate involvement in veterinary medicine, is probably the most useful approach for making career decisions that align with your values and goals.

The full report is at marsveterinary.com/veterinary-science/reports/2025. Read it. Form your own opinions about what it means for the profession and for your career.

The future of veterinary medicine is being shaped right now. Understanding who's shaping it and how is part of being an informed professional.