Nestlé Purina builds nutrition support center at UC-Davis

St. Louis-

The University of California-Davis has a new nutrition support center at its Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

The goal of the center is to meet patients' exacting dietary needs.

Dr. Andrea Fascetti, a clinical nutritionist at the UC-Davis VeterinaryTeaching Hospital says, "The center reinforces the role appropriatenutrition management plays in successful overall management of clinicalcases. As a result, we are consulting on an increasing number of individualcases within the hospital, as well as throughout California and the UnitedStates."

While Nestlé Purina funded, designed and installed nutrition centersfor veterinary teaching hospitals at Michigan State University and ColoradoState University, the center at UC-Davis is the largest and most comprehensiveto date, says Dr. Elizabeth McKenna, a Nestlé Purina veterinary communicationsmanager. The center is staffed with nutrition residents and a technician.The facility includes a room for food preparation and inventory storage,a learning room with computer terminals, and a small library.

According to Fascetti, "We went from having pet foods stored invarious places throughout the hospital to a centralized location with aconvenient storage system and a computerized inventory control and orderingsystem."

McKenna adds, "Whether veterinary hospitals have five cages or 500,they all have patients that must be fed efficiently with fresh, wholesomefood dispensed and prepared in a cost- and time-saving manner. To designthis center, we tapped Nestlé Purina retail expertise in shelf andinventory management and combined it with years of experience working withveterinary hospital nutritionists."

Fascetti adds, "More and more veterinarians realize the importanceof nutrition in the dietary management of certain health conditions. They'realso realizing the value of nutrition in preventive medicine, such as helpingto manage obesity before it affects the animal in a negative way with diabetesor other associated problems."