The University of Calgary opened a new building on Monday for its veterinary students. (CBC)

The University of Calgary has opened a new building where veterinary students can work directly with animals.

The faculty of veterinary medicine's Clinical Skills Building was officially opened on Monday morning.

Students will still study in classrooms and labs in the Health Sciences Centre, which is shared with the faculty of medicine on the university's main campus. But two or three days a week they will also work with animals in the new state-of-the-art building on the Spy Hill campus, about 20 kilometres away.

"I am so excited! This is beautiful. This is … more amazing that I could've ever asked for," said second-year veterinary medicine student Erin Heck.

A veterinary student gestures at a model horse at the University of Calgary's new Clinical Skills Building. (CBC)

"I find that I learned so much better when I can actually do something rather than have it be told to me — and this facility gives us the opportunity to do just that."

The building includes diagnostic and surgical areas as well as leading-edge imaging technology, Education Minister Doug Horner said.

Alastair Cribb, dean of the faculty of veterinary medicine, said the U of C developed the program to address a shortage of veterinarians in Alberta, but recent world events — such as mad cow disease, SARS and the West Nile virus — prove a bigger issue is involved.

"It's not just about training veterinarians, it's about research. It's about bringing expertise to the province," Cribb said.

The province announced plans to open a veterinary school at the university in 2004, hailing it as a training ground in the fight against BSE and avian flu.

The inaugural class of graduate students started in 2006, with undergraduates enrolling in a four-year program in 2008.