LMU opens the most cutting-edge equine clinic in southern Germany

• The new LMU building in Oberschleissheim near Munich was inaugurated today
• Inpatient facilities at the hospital can treat 800 horses per year
• State-of-the-art large equipment adds even more examination options

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) today opened its new equine clinic in Oberschleissheim near Munich. It is southern Germany’s largest and most cutting-edge hospital for horses and offers an excellent environment for research and teaching. Over the coming years, the entire Faculty of Veterinary Medicine will gradually be relocated to the Oberschleissheim campus — several institutes and clinics as well as the University’s teaching and research farm are already located there.

“This new, state-of-the-art building combines the ideal conditions for research and learning with the treatment and care of horses,” says Professor Bernd Huber, LMU President. “I am delighted that the opening of the new equine clinic means we have reached another milestone in the planned relocation of all veterinary medicine at LMU to our Campus Oberschleissheim.”

The most cutting-edge equine clinic in southern Germany

LMU’s equine clinic operates departments for surgery, internal medicine, foal intensive care and reproductive medicine, among others. In addition to research and teaching in these fields, it also specializes in the treatment of elite sports horses. With an effective area of 3,600m2, the hospital can treat some 800 horses as inpatients and 400 horses as outpatients in a year. State-of-the-art large equipment, including computer tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), adds even more examination options.

“I am very pleased because we are designing a campus here that I believe will be unique in Europe. In terms of both space and concept, the new equine clinic is extremely well equipped and designed to be functional — for treatment, research, teaching and training. Because our goal is to work at the highest level, both professionally and technically,” says Professor Reinhard Straubinger, Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at LMU. “And being customer friendly is very important to us. Because traveling to the city center was not easy for the horses and their owners; now it is a much more convenient journey.”

In building the new equine clinic, LMU was particularly concerned to construct a sustainable, energy-efficient building: The integrated energy center in the basement supplies the entire campus with heating and air conditioning. The majority of the demand is covered by near-surface geothermal energy. The total costs for the construction of the equine clinic amounted to 39.5 million euros, which was covered in full by the Free State of Bavaria. The equine clinic was designed by Munich architects Claus+Forster.

LMU’s Campus Oberschleissheim — a unique project

The expansion of the campus in Oberschleissheim is part of LMU’s long-term location strategy. Following the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine’s relocation to the new Oberschleissheim campus, the new campus for LMU’s Faculty of Physics is now being built step by step on the site it used to occupy in Munich’s English Garden. With many different veterinary medical institutions set to be located on the expansive site, LMU’s Campus Oberschleissheim will become a center for research and teaching in veterinary medicine that is unique in Europe.

LMU has around 1,800 vet students enrolled. Besides providing the demanding veterinary training, which lasts five years, the scientists at LMU’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine carry out cutting-edge research and its clinics provide comprehensive care and treatment for the animal patients.

The bird clinic was the first new building to open on the campus in 1992. Before that, the Faculty’s teaching and research farm was already located there. The hospital for pigs and ruminants and the Institutes of Food Science and Animal Nutrition followed, and the bird clinic was expanded to also care for reptiles, amphibians and ornamental fish. More recently, a central building complete with lecture hall and cafeteria was inaugurated in 2018.

Opposite the equine clinic, the new building for the Institute of Infectious Medicine and Zoonotic Diseases is currently under construction and is expected to be ready to open in 2023. Further major steps in the campus’s development are currently being planned: Construction of the new Anatomy and Pathology building is expected to start in 2023, followed by further buildings for the pre-clinical facilities and student teaching, including the canteen and the library.

Pictures of the event can be downloaded here: https://lmzvd06-lmumediapool.srv.mwn.de/collection/a44d33ff-2d9a-4c58-9d13-d6e215310cd3?collection=373f9b8f-fdde-4171-817c-d58e1b84899c