Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine (2013) / Chapter Skim
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4 Food-Animal Veterinary Medicine
4 Food-Animal Veterinary Medicine
Pages 57-90
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From page 57... ...
As the "eyes and ears" of the national animal health network, food-animal veterinarians also work to prevent and control foreign-animal disease outbreaks on the nation's farm lands. The essential public health nature of those responsibilities has come into focus in recent years because of the expansion of global trade and the spread of infectious diseases, including newly emerging diseases, many of which are zoonotic, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)
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From page 58... ...
. Shortly after World War II, more than half of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)
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From page 59... ...
An additional reason for the lack of veterinary services in some areas is linked to rapid and fundamental changes in the social and economic structure of rural America, driven in large measure by changes in the U.S. livestock and poultry industries.
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From page 60... ...
The consequence is that livestock farmers who live far from populated areas have difficulty obtaining veterinary care. One solution may be through the use of well-trained veterinary paraprofessionals working in a team with licensed veterinarians who may be at a distant site but are in constant communication with the paraprofessionals via smart phones.
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From page 61... ...
They did not see the need to increase the number of graduates in poultry medicine. They recognized that consolidation reduced demand for traditional veterinary services, but there was wide disagreement on the long-term effect on the profession.
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From page 62... ...
Poultry veterinarians in poultry-producing states commonly hold faculty positions in universities where they provide instruction, maintain poultryresearch programs, and provide services in state diagnostic laboratories. Those in live-poultry production are employed primarily by integrator companies that contract with producers; there are few independent veterinary consultants in poultry medicine.
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From page 63... ...
Growth of the movement to use locally-produced food, including free-range and backyard flocks, is a concern for the poultry industry because it implies potential sites for foreign-animal diseases, including exotic Newcastle disease and avian influenza, to gain access to the United States. Mixed-food-animal veterinarians usually provide health care and disease surveillance for these birds, which require having knowledge about the symptoms of those and other infections.
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From page 64... ...
term "the hollowing out" of small towns in the United States, especially in the Midwest Corn Belt, with declining populations and prosperity and reduced demand for food-animal veterinary services. Large swine operations succeeded in increasing efficiency of production by making use of new technologies, including improved genetics, artificial insemination, more efficient feeding programs with better feed-to-weight-gain ratios, environmentally-controlled buildings, highly-efficient production systems, and strict sanitary (biosecurity)
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From page 65... ...
In view of these needs, it is gratifying that a new Center of Excellence in Swine Medicine Education has been created at Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine in collaboration with the Audubon-Manning Veterinary Clinic. The swine industry consolidation may be the cause of the overall decline in food-animal veterinary services in several rural states where swine operations had predominated.
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From page 66... ...
The Dairy Industry The dairy industry is more diverse than the poultry or swine industries. Although consolidation is progressing more slowly, the number of dairy farms in the United States fell by 88%, from 648,000 operations in 1970 to 75,000 in 2006 (MacDonald et al., 2007)
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From page 67... ...
Year FIGURE 4-4 Number and average size of dairy farms in the United States, in thousands, 1970-2006. SOURCE: MacDonald et al., 2007.
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From page 68... ...
As the dairy industry undergoes consolidation, dairy veterinarians are obliged to change from primary animal health-care providers to consultants on herd health, nutrition, animal welfare, sustainability of complex farming operations, establishment of herd health protocols, and the training of herders in the implementation of the protocols. As is the case in the swine industry, dairy veterinarians have to adjust their practices, albeit in a more slowly-evolving marketplace, to ensure that as consolidation proceeds, large and small producers have access to veterinary services appropriate to their needs.
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From page 69... ...
However, the traditional dairy states are moving slowly toward larger units; the number of herds with over 500 head in the Northeast and Corn Belt states more than doubled from 2000 to 2006 and as this occurs, the type of veterinary services required change. There are large numbers of food-animal-exclusive practitioners in Wisconsin and the traditional dairy states of the Northeast and many fewer in California and the West (Appendix C, Figure C-3)
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From page 70... ...
Alternatively, foreign-trained veterinarians, some of whom speak little English, are hired as herders and herd health-care providers. Large operations achieve further economies of scale by purchasing dairy supplies and drugs in bulk from sources other than local veterinary practices that have depended on traditional markups.
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From page 71... ...
Dairy veterinarians practice for an average of 30 years. These estimates of parameters in the dairy industry project a need for 20,222 dairy farms, a workforce of 2,022 dairy veterinarians, and 67 new graduates each year with long-term commitments to the dairy industry to sustain that workforce.
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From page 72... ...
. They illustrate that, unless changes are made in the services that the veterinary medical profession offers the dairy industry, consolidation will lead to substantially reduced demand for dairy practitioners.
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From page 73... ...
Dairy veterinarians also need the business skills to analyze records for an entire dairy farming operation and provide ownermanagers with objective advice that will result in improved animal health, productivity, and overall farm profitability. Consolidation of the dairy industry is expected to persist for at least the next decade with two predictable results: more farms will go out of business, and more rural areas will be without veterinary services.
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From page 74... ...
. As in the other food-animal industries, consolidation affects demand for veterinary services: large herds require consulting services in production medicine delivered efficiently and inexpensively, and small herds typically require basic animalhusbandry services, health testing, vaccination, dehorning, castration, and obstetrics.
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From page 75... ...
Because of declining animal values, producers have been forced to consolidate, and herds of over 1,000 cows are now considered necessary to support a family of four (Gay, 2011)
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From page 76... ...
To perform these tasks, consultant veterinarians draw upon their knowledge of routine animal care with focus on the health of individual animals and their proficiency in production medicine with focus on the performance, profitability, and nutrient management of the entire herd. Sheep and Goat Industries The size of the U.S.
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From page 77... ...
Food-animal veterinary services for the sheep and goat industries are inadequate in many parts of the country (NRC, 2008)
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From page 78... ...
SOURCE: USDANASS, 2009a. THE SUPPLY OF FOOD-ANIMAL VETERINARIANS The Changing Profile of Food-Animal Veterinarians As the largest professional organization for veterinarians, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)
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From page 79... ...
The figure shows that the makeup of the food-animal veterinary workforce is changing toward greater participation by mixed-food-animal practitioners. In 1995, the year that AVMA established the definition of mixed-food-animal practitioners as veterinarians who devoted 50% of their effort to food-animal care, there were 3,148 mixed-food-animal practitioners.
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From page 80... ...
Total LA Small Animal Mixed All Food FTEs Members 1966 1,861 1,861 4,700 7,917 26,632 5,820 21.85 1971 1,700 1,700 7,050 8,583 25,665 5,992 23.35 1976 1,958 1,958 9,524 9,437 27,889 6,677 23.94 19812 1,113 1,113 12,210 11,153 33,545 6,690 19.94 1986 4,024 4,024 17,682 13,344 46,625 10,696 22.94 1987 4,023 4,023 18,984 13,479 48,646 10,763 22.12 1988 4,020 4,020 19,885 13,502 50,612 10,771 21.28 1989 4,054 4,054 20,721 13,420 52,027 10,764 20.69 1990 4,086 4,086 22,056 13,769 53,299 10,971 20.58 1991 4,122 4,122 22,920 13,757 55,157 11,001 19.94 1992 4,243 4,243 23,967 13,944 56,421 11,215 19.88 1993 4,280 4,280 24,682 14,047 58,099 11,304 19.46 1994 4,289 4,289 24,493 13,988 59,360 11,283 19.01 LAE LAP SAE SAP 1995 1,805 4,078 5,883 22,839 5,376 3,148 54,852 6,641 12.11 1996 1,857 4,078 5,935 23,635 5,514 3,215 55,252 6,727 12.17 1997 1,860 4,024 5,884 24,567 5,661 3,207 56,694 6,683 11.79 1998 1,771 3,802 5,573 24,727 5,528 3,097 57,052 6,361 11.15 1999 1,894 3,876 5,770 26,235 5,717 3,418 60,829 6,704 11.02 2001 2,195 3,583 5,778 30,460 6,399 3,909 72,423 7,016 9.69 2002^ 2,142 3,013 5,154 30,999 5,953 3,666 72,598 6,385 8.80 2003 2,253 3,273 5,526 32,391 6,285 3,882 76,026 6,812 8.96 2004 2,285 3,145 5,430 33,417 6,324 3,890 77,889 6,746 8.66 2005 2,268 3,047 5,315 34,022 6,244 3,900 79,569 6,656 8.36 20063 993 4,150 5,143 37,137 5,688 4,376 84,946 6,501 7.65 20072 1,048 4,042 5,090 38,974 5,811 4,345 87,946 6,454 7.34 NOTE: FTE=full-time equivalent, LAE=large-animal exclusive, LAP=large-animal predominant, SAE=small-animal exclusive, SAP=small-animal predominant. 1 Includes actively employed AVMA members and verified nonmembers in the Membership Database.
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From page 81... ...
More food animals are in consolidated livestock facilities that generally require veterinarians with full-time, specialized commitment to foodanimal practice, but an overall decline in the demand in food-animal practice and an increase in reliance on companion-animal care to supplement incomes is pushing professional services towards mixed-food-animal practice and delivery of traditional food-animal veterinary services. There are other changes in the demographics of rural America that may impact the directions of food-animal veterinary practice and explain the rise in numbers of mixed-food-animal veterinarians.
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From page 82... ...
Figures 4-11, 4-12, and 4-13 provide a snapshot of changes in the age structure of each category of food-animal practice between 2001 and 2007. AVMA membership data (Appendix C, Tables C-2a,b; 3a,b; and 4a,b)
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From page 83... ...
Mixed-food-animal practitioners have an average age of 47 years, and the group is aging more slowly than the other two categories of food-animal practice. However, the percentage of mixed-food-animal practitioners under 50 years old declined by more than 10 percent between 2001 and 2007 (Figure 4-13)
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From page 84... ...
The number of graduates entering food-animal-exclusive practice, presumably with the goal of serving intensive systems of production focused on a single species, increased from 1989 to 2007 and then decreased by nearly 70% from 2007 to 2009. Inasmuch as starting salaries were nearly $10,000/year more in food-animal-exclusive than in food-animal-predominant and mixed-animal practices (discussed later in this chapter)
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From page 85... ...
SOURCE: Chieffo et al., 2008; Shepherd and Pikel, 2011. Starting Salaries and Student Debt From 1989 to the present, starting salaries for new graduates entering foodanimal-exclusive practice are higher ($71,096)
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From page 86... ...
160,000 140,000 120,000 100,000 Owner 80,000 Associate 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 FAE FAP Mix CAE CAP EQU Category FIGURE 4-15 2009 median incomes of practice owners and associates by category. NOTE: FAE=Food-animal-exclusive; FAP=Food-animal-predominant; Mix=Mixed-animal; CAE=companion-animal-exclusive; CAP=companion-animal-predominant; EQU=equine veterinary practice.
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From page 87... ...
For the veterinary profession, this is untenable. A Vision for Food-Animal Veterinary Medical Education To ensure their future in food-animal medicine, veterinary graduates should be well-grounded in the specialized aspects of the livestock or poultry industries they wish to serve and have the skills needed by these increasingly intensive, specialized, and concentrated industries.
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From page 88... ...
Two-year residency programs would be included in the center program. The University of California at Davis Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center at Tulare, California, the Iowa State Swine Medicine Education Center partnered with the Audubon Manning Veterinary Clinic, and the recent USDA grant to create a National Center of Excellence in Dairy Production Medical Education for Veterinary Students provide encouraging examples.
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From page 89... ...
noted that "the problem is in large part a matter of the economics of food-animal veterinary practice, [and] areas with perceived shortages commonly do not provide satisfactory remuneration." The report raises a question that is as salient today as it was in 1982: Are there unmet needs for food-animal veterinarians in rural America because of economic circumstances, or are there real shortages with adequate compensation but inadequate numbers of food-animal veterinarians?
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From page 90... ...
In view of this, the committee supports a proposal to integrate rigorously-trained and credentialed food-animal veterinary paraprofessionals (veterinary technicians or individuals with veterinary training) working in health-care teams with licensed veterinarians who may be at a distant site (Remsberg et al., 2007)
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