任务:阿富汗

Long before joining a veterinary mission to Afghanistan, NC State’s Jim Floyd felt comfortable working in camouflage.

The ruminant health professor spent 30 years in the Army before joining the university as a department head in population health and pathobiology, just before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

经过近八年的学术领导，他再次在60岁时在非洲角的陆军国民卫队任务中再次穿上制服。去年6月，他与肯塔基国民卫队农业发展队II召开的责任，基于阿富汗的Bagram空军基地。

The military has an interest in veterinary care because healthy animals mean healthier families, a stronger government and more stability in the region. During his yearlong deployment, Floyd has enjoyed a Wolfpack reunion, training veterinarians in Laghman Province with a team that included Eileen Jenkins (above), a 2006 NC State veterinary graduate.

在蹄子上

阿富汗的农业基础经济包括大约2000万只绵羊和山羊。虽然许多是家庭群的一部分，但一个半游牧民族，kuchis，牛群高达30,000只动物。弗洛伊德已经看过牛，牛奶，驴和马，虽然他还没有治疗任何骆驼。

“Animals are wealth here, almost like a bank account on the hoof,” Floyd says.

Because Afghanistan has animal diseases like foot and mouth, which hasn’t been seen in the United States since the 1920s, no animals are exported.

After 30 years of turmoil, a brain drain has depleted what was once a well-staffed diagnostics lab in Kabul. While doing postmortems on sheep and goats recently, Floyd found himself wishing his colleagues could have access to the kinds of labs back at home in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

He helps train veterinarians and paraprofessionals, working with the ministry of agriculture, Afghani veterinary schools and nongovernmental organizations.

虽然他觉得Camaraderie，通过翻译工作者在达里，波斯语方言中沟通技术信息，却有挑战。“在一个会议中，我意识到我在脚注水平，分段层，我的翻译是在目录中，”弗洛伊德说，在记忆中喋喋不休。

Cultural Challenges

To build support for basic veterinary care, including vaccinations and parasite control, Floyd has a research and demonstration project with 12 flocks of sheep on local farms.

The Afghani focus on the here-and-now—the present and the next few days—poses complications for Floyd, who has to plan farm visits well in advance because he travels in a convoy of four armored vehicles for security reasons.

他最生动的回忆之一是试图在日历的同一页上安排农业访问。除了在相反的方向（从底部左侧读取）之外，波斯日历还没有不同地分裂几个月。

Lessons for the Professor

弗洛伊德期待着与学生和同事分享他的经验，当他返回NC州时。

One message that’s hit home for him is the importance of secure borders and a regulatory network that protects American agriculture from devastating diseases.

“When I teach about preventing disease outbreaks, I emphasize that this is not just an academic exercise or a test. This is something that could really happen someday. Veterinarians are our first line of defense.”

Even if they don’t wear camouflage.