Vets for the poor: How can we strengthen the profession in the developing countries?
World Veterinary Day
provides a great opportunity to celebrate the work of vets around the world and, as it relates to GALVmed, to thank all our many veterinarian partners for your continued support. We belong to a great profession! But we also need to recognise that the veterinary profession is not yet serving the needs of the under-resourced livestock keeper in large areas of the world. We need to be asking ourselves, as a profession, what we can do to encourage the young veterinarians who graduate from vet schools across much of the developing world, after undertaking challenging and costly studies, to take the bold step of establishing themselves to offer private sector clinical services in the rural areas of their home country. We know it will be risky and will take hard work in order to succeed, but too many young vets find themselves unable to find opportunities to work in their own countries as veterinary surgeons and end up drifting into parallel careers which, while important, do not allow them to fulfil their early dreams on entering the profession. I do not believe it will take a lot to shift the balance to the point where farmers recognise the economic benefit the advice and input of a vet can provide. But it will take commitment on the part of the young veterinarian and would be significantly enhanced if, in the early, most risky stages for the young entrepreneur, an external body could underwrite some of the risk. Indeed, this model has found success in other, more developed, parts of the world where rural practice has become less attractive. And what about practices in the west offering support and encouragement to young, enterprising veterinarians wanting to plough the lonely furrow of setting themselves up as private practitioners in their home countries?
This year’s World Veterinary Day on 25th April is focusing on Vector-borne diseases with Zoonotic potential. Vector-borne zoonotic diseases are becoming a major public health concern in fact scientists estimate that more than 6 out of every 10 infectious diseases in humans are spread from animals. At GALVmed, we work on a number of zoonotic diseases not only to protect livestock from these diseases but humans as well. Tweet us your thoughts and share with us what World Veterinary Day means to you. @GALVmed #WorldVetDay