New research explores challenges to farm vet profession

Vets who work with farm animals are facing increasing challenges to their professional standing and need to increase and promote their disease prevention services, according to new research by The University of Nottingham's Vet School. The study published in Preventative Veterinary Medicine set out to investigate farm vets' perceptions of current challenges to the profession and attempts to redressing what is seen as a worrying 'de-professionalisation' of the field. This is the first study that explores if and how vets are responding to the challenges facing the profession. Researchers targeted veterinarians working in businesses with RCVS Farm Animal Accreditation to carry out an extensive qualitative survey of their experience in face to face s. A total of 28 vets, 21 male and 7 female, from areas with a variety of high, medium and low density farm animal populations took part in the study which was carried out over a four month period. Threats to vets Research Fellow, Dr Orla Shortall , said: "Farm animal vets in the UK have faced various challenges in recent decades related to the withdrawal of government funding and a contraction of the agricultural sector. They have been under pressure to respond by focusing on disease prevention advisory services but have been in competition with other providers in this area. We believe that if this is not addressed it could lead to a loss of farm vets' monopoly over knowledge, a loss of work autonomy and an erosion of livestock farmers' trust in their vet services." Dr Jasmeet Kaler , Lecturer in Epidemiology and Farm Animal Health, added: " We found the majority of the farm vets we ed did recognise the challenges facing their profession.