Farmscape for June 19, 2024
| Full Interview 19:01 | Listen  |
A series of surveys of practicing swine veterinarians conducted by the Western College of Veterinary Medicine suggests a need to step up the recruitment of veterinary students. In response to a shortage of swine veterinarians, researchers with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine conducted a series of surveys in which swine veterinarians in private or corporate practice and allied industry vets were asked such things as how long they have been in practice, their educational background, what attracted them to the profession and how long they plan to remain active. Dr. John Harding, a professor of swine medicine with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, says the five surveys focused on different topics including the swine profession and its needs, swine medicine education, swine medicine curricula, swine veterinarian clinical competency and swine continuing education and advanced certification.
Quote-Dr. John Harding-Western College of Veterinary Medicine:
The surveys had a number of questions, somewhere between 10 and 25 depending on the survey and they were intended to probe a variety of different topics and views of the participants. The short story is that there’s a shortage of veterinarians across North America and, for food animal veterinarians, this is even more complex due to several issues such as difficulty attracting vets to rural areas that are often remote, farm economics, balance of life concerns and the complexity, particularly in the technical area, of the livestock industry. For swine it’s even more acute because it’s a very specialized industry and there are very few veterinary students that have any exposure to it.
Dr. Harding notes publication of the survey results is pending but anyone wanting further information can contact him directly at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine.
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