Forty Under 40: Abigail Reith

Abigail Reith spent 10 years earning degrees in three states to finish her education in the animal health industry. With a focus on poultry medicine, health and management, it’s no wonder she wanted to start her career in a “poultry-dense” region like Northwest Arkansas.

A Springfield, Mo., native, Reith (pronounced RYE-TH) completed her veterinary and post-graduate avian medicine training in December 2018, and then accepted a job offer from pharmaceutical company Zoetis, a public company and the world’s most prominent in the animal health sector.

She works remotely from Rogers for the company’s North Carolina-based poultry division, supporting several of the region’s protein companies with medicine and vaccinations and monitoring hatchery operations and chick health. She concentrates mainly on broilers and breeders in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, working to tackle disease and reduce food safety issues linked to poultry production.

“Some of those [poultry] companies do not have a whole lot of vets, so they will lean on animal health companies [like Zoetis] for our value-added support,” she said.

It took Reith less than four years to earn an animal science degree from the University of Arkansas in 2012. She graduated from the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine in 2017 and has a master’s degree in avian medicine from the University of Georgia.

Reith is the only woman among approximately a dozen Zoetis poultry technical services team veterinarians. She said their unified goal is “providing a safe, wholesome protein source to the world.”

Reith was the poultry division’s sole recipient of the company’s President’s Circle Award this year for customer service. She co-chairs The Poultry Federation’s Women in Poultry committee.