The Department of Veterinary Surgery & Radiology was established in the year 1948 as a constituent department of Assam Veterinary College headed by Dr. Purna Chandra Pathak. Several illustrious Veterinary surgeons of the country headed this department in its long journey out of which the names of Dr. Harendra Nath Sharma and Dr. Subhash Chandra Pathak are noteworthy. Dr. H. N. Sarma is the only person from the North East India who ever served the Indian Society for Veterinary Surgery as its President and was the main architect behind the construction of the present building housing the department. Dr. S. C. Pathak was known all over the country as a pioneer of wildlife anaesthesia and surgery and was responsible for cultivating an outstanding work culture in the department. Dr. Kushal Konwar Sarma is heading the department from 2012 onwards, who brought glory not only to the department and the college but to the entire Assam Agricultural University by bagging the prestigious Padmashree award from Govt. of India in 2020. Dr. Sarma has been recognized internationally as the Elephant Man of Asia and is considered as an authority of wildlife healthcare in general and elephant healthcare, welfare and conservation in particular and contributed in this field for over three decades.

The department building has a sprawling 26,000 square feet plinth area with three small animal operation theatres, one large animal operation theatre, one large and one small animal OPD, sterilization room, one modern lecture hall (100 capacity) and one seminar hall (25 capacity), experimental animal housing facilities, one X-ray room constructed following AERB (Atomic Energy Regulatory Board) specifications, one Ultrasound room, one Post Graduate laboratory, and six faculty sitting rooms, three rest rooms etc. The department has been involved in undergraduate, post graduate and Doctoral teaching and research. The department has the collaboration with Indian institute of Technology, Guwahati , North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) , Shillong, Meghalaya, Guwahati Medical College (GMC), Bhangagarh, Guwahati, Assam, Department of Forest and Wildlife, Govt. Of Assam, Megalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Department of Forest and Wildlife, Govt. Of Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Lakhimpur College of Veterinary Science, Joyhing, etc. .

The department has one 500 mA ceiling mounted movable X-ray machine, one ultrasound machine, one operating microscope, two small animal anaesthesia machines, one dental surgery unit fitted with Radio-visiography (dental x-ray), Ultrasonic Dental Scaling machine, pulse oximeter, respirometer etc. The department serves as a referral center for Veterinary Clinical Complex of this college and for the entire northeastern region performing about 5000 surgical operations annually. At present we have 5 seats for MVSc and 3 for PhD in Surgery & Radiology.