Professor claims vets treating pets causes food threat

Feb 15 2010 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

“At the same time we live in an age when there is real and widespread public concern about welfare standards for farm animals, threats from animal diseases old and new such as blue tongue, bird flu and swine flu, and food safety.”

In the past the veterinary arm of Government traditionally provided leadership for the profession, said Prof Lowe, that was embodied by the Chief Veterinary Officer and was underpinned by the proportion of vets’ income derived from public funding.

But this is no longer the case, he said, and is further undermined by the percentage of vets employed by Government having shrunk from 11% to 4% over the past 40 years.

The profession needs to rethink its role and the direction in which it is travelling, he says, though he has cautioned against returning to the stereotype popularised by the fictional James Herriot vet, who was depicted as a mainstay of the rural community.

“The farm vet’s position and respect for their expertise needs to be restored, but not in the old Herriot mould. He or she has to take on the much greater challenge of risk and welfare regulation and management across the whole food system,” said Prof Lowe.

British Veterinary Association President Professor Bill Reilly said: “We recognise that Professor Lowe did not identify any current shortfall in veterinary surgeons in food animal practice, although industries such as pig and poultry where concerns have been raised were not looked at in his report.

“With increasing numbers of veterinary graduates choosing small animal practice, we are well aware of need to plan for the future now and the BVA has already started working on a forum to promote the role of large animal vets to the farming industry.

“One of our main challenges is to ensure we train and engage young veterinarians early in their careers to continue to pursue their enthusiasm for food animal practice.”