Standing up for the veterinary profession
08 Aug 2024
22 Sep 2019 | Claire White
With a breadth of enforcement powers, vets working in veterinary public health are the eyes and ears of animal health, welfare, and food hygiene.
With a breadth of enforcement powers, vets working in veterinary public health are the eyes and ears of animal health, welfare, and food hygiene – a fact recognised by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). In fact, the first case of Foot and Mouth Disease of the 2001 outbreak in the UK was identified by an Official Veterinarian (OV) in a pig abattoir, Crucially, the opportunities in veterinary public health are not just limited to the food industry.
OVs give consumers, exporters and food businesses operators crucial assurances that the food on our plates is safe and has met essential animal health and welfare standards. They make sure that the animals we care so much about receive a good death and work collaboratively with food business operators to make sure that they thrive not just survive in a hugely competitive market. In the meat hygiene sector, OVs see more animals on a day to day basis than any other area of veterinary work, so there’s a wealth of experience to learn from.
Working is an OV is just one of the ways in which you can be involved in the wider picture of farm, animal and equine animal health and welfare. There is also a vast array of roles in private practice and civil service where vets deal with the human-animal-environment interface at an individual, national and international level (consider Alabama Rot in dogs caught from the environment and recent outbreaks of Equine flu in vaccinated animals).
Veterinary public health is perhaps the broadest specialist field in the profession and will touch on almost everyone’s careers at some point; here’s how you can make the most of its diversity and ubiquity through your EMS placements.
There are a range of ways for you to see more of veterinary public health as part of your EMS placements, ranging from structured intensive courses, to veterinary public health masterclasses:
VPHA are also well placed to help you find a placement through our contacts, we have contacts across:
So just drop us a line on [email protected] let us know what kind of experience you’re after, whereabouts in the country and for how long, and we can go from there.
Why not take the opportunity now to explore the diversity of roles in veterinary public health and where your own career interests might link with the field? A week or so spent in veterinary public health could broaden your horizons, help you to view that interesting clinical case from a slightly different perspective or simply appreciate how critical a role vets play in ensuring the health and harmony of society as a whole. All in a day’s work.
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