Report urges Britain’s vets to take more proactive role

Britain’s vets will today be told they need to develop new relationships with farmers and government as well as take the lead in safeguarding public health.

A far more proactive role is recommended in a long-awaited report from Professor Philip Lowe, the rural economy professor at Newcastle University.

He has found a widening gap between the perceptions of vets and farmers about the role of veterinary medicine.

While many farm vets voice fears that farmers are increasingly unable to access vital services because of a tendency for newly-qualified practitioners to work in small animal practice, farmers are more inclined to regard vets as costly “quasi regulators” who add little value to their businesses. His key recommendation is the setting up of a new Veterinary Development Council, which could reconnect professional education and training with the needs of the customers, create new work opportunities for technicians and develop the farm health planning role of vets.

Prof Lowe added: “It would also provide an opportunity to formalise the major part that vets can play, helping to equip farmers with the skills in animal health that they need to run their businesses and to ensure the supply of safe and good quality food.”

The report highlights the need for young vets to be better trained and prepared for farm work, which nationally accounts for just 10% of veterinary business. The role of technicians in offering a more flexible service is also stressed.

Weaknesses in the public health role for vets had to addressed, Prof Lowe said. He commented on the cultural divide that has come about from the Meat Hygiene Service which polices abattoirs. It has largely cut links between local vets and food hygiene in slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants as it has centralised operations. Most vets now working for it are from overseas.

Prof Lowe said: “It is timely, for both farmers and vets to be looking to the future, and particularly at the role that vets need to play in ensuring the safety of the food chain. The new proposals from the government for responsibility and cost sharing on animal health present both challenges and opportunities.”

British Veterinary Association president Nicky Paull welcomed the report. It set out a number of challenges that it would now have to consult the profession about. She said with farming ministry Defra pressing a new cost and responsibility regime over animal disease the time was ripe for a discussion on the future role of vets.