Idaho State Vet

“My name is Dr. Scott Leibsle and I’m the state Veterinarian and administrator of the division of Animal Industries at the Idaho State Department of Agriculture,” said Dr. Scott Leibsle.

Dr. Scott Leibsle graduated from the University of Wisconsin, and his first practice was in Idaho’s Wood River Valley.

“And then I went back to practice dairy and equine in Wisconsin for 5 years and this job came open, I was looking for a change.

When I got here certainly Idaho has become my home. I started a family here and it’s been such a pleasure to expand what the possibilities of what my career could have been. But how I think how I made it out here is I moved to Idaho once and liked it so I though I’d move back. But the Department of Agriculture and the people that are here that make the Dept of Ag and really that support the livestock industry is why I stayed.”

That was back in 2011. Now it’s been almost a year since he became the state veterinarian after the retirement of Dr. Bill Barton in January.

“The job of the state veterinarian, I think, is very broad, and it really can change on a regular basis. But in large part, the livestock industry, to be able to grow and sell your livestock to maintain a food supply is a big part of this job. And disease surveillance; so having regular testing for brucellosis, tuberculosis, any type of the follow up that goes along with animals that are flagged as suspect is done through regulatory veterinarians such as myself.