Starting in April, petfood manufacturer Hill’s Pet Nutrition will make regular visits to more than 22,000 veterinary hospitals and clinics to help build support for and implement nutritional recommendations as the "5th Vital Assessment" in pet healthcare.

To achieve this goal, Hill’s will use an expanded network of national and regional selling agents who will more frequently reach out to veterinarian healthcare teams across the country, and will also increase the number of direct representatives in both the pet specialty and veterinary channels. The new Hill's representation includes more than 1,200 distributor representatives, territory managers, practice development veterinarians and customer service representatives.

“This expansion will give us the ability to better partner with the profession,” said Kostas Kontopanos, president of Hill’s US. “We can get a better understanding of what individual veterinarians and their clients need, as well as provide nutritional education and support.”