Date: 10-1-04

Contact: Tony Caver, DVM 803-788-2260 acaver@clemson.edu

Writer: Debbie Dalhouse 864-656-6737 ddalhou@clemson edu

CLEMSON NAMES CAVER STATE VETERINARIAN

COLUMBIA -- J. Anthony (Tony) Caver, DVM, has been named state veterinarian and director of Clemson University Livestock-Poultry Health Programs in Columbia. Livestock-Poultry Health Programs include the Veterinary Diagnostic Center, Animal Health Regulatory Programs, and the Meat and Poultry Inspection Department for the state of South Carolina.

Caver joined Clemson in 1981 as an area supervisor for the Meat and Poultry Inspection Department and later became pathologist for the Veterinary Diagnostic Center. He served as interim co-director of the diagnostic center before being named state veterinarian and director of Livestock-Poultry Health Programs. He has been interim director since June 2002 when the previous director, Jones W. Bryan, retired after 13 years with Clemson Livestock-Poultry Health. Prior to joining Clemson, Caver was in private veterinary practice in the Aiken-Augusta area.

Caver's special interest is zoonotic diseases, those that can be transmitted from animals to humans. He completed the Foreign Animal Disease Pathology course at Plum Island (NY) Animal Disease Center in 2001. He is a lieutenant colonel and Chief of Public Health Services in the S.C. Air National Guard and served on the Preventive Aerospace Medicine team in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to Carnegie-Mellon University and was inducted into Phi Zeta Honor Society of Veterinary Medicine and Delta Omega Honor Society of Public Health. He was named Outstanding Classified Employee of the Year for Clemson's Division of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Research. He has received the Air National Guard's Outstanding Public Health Officer of the Year Award. He is a member of the S.C. Association of Veterinarians, American Veterinary Medical Association, and the Spring Valley Rotary Club of Columbia, S.C.

Caver earned a B.S. in Animal and Poultry Science and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Tuskegee Institute, as well as a Master of Public Health degree with a major in epidemiology from the University of South Carolina.

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