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Farmers Weekly Rural Survey Reveals Extent Of Vanishing Vets

18 years ago
5030 views

Posted
24th February, 2006 00h00


Commenting on the Farmers Weekly survey and feature ‘Vanishing Vets’ British Veterinary Association (BVA) President Dr Freda Scott-Park said: “The BVA has repeatedly spelled out to Government the consequences of the declining number of experienced veterinary surgeons working in the rural community as did the House of Commons EFRA Committee report on Vets and Veterinary Services (V&VS) published in 2003. While Defra has established a V&VS unit the BVA remains concerned that there seems little appetite in Government to listen to or act on the concerns expressed. Hopefully the Farmers Weekly survey will help to concentrate minds. “The Government’s own Animal Health & Welfare Strategy states that the veterinary surgeon should be the cornerstone of delivery of the strategy. There is, however, a very real risk that the number of experienced farm animal vets remaining will be insufficient to deliver the vision of the strategy - disease surveillance, animal health and animal welfare will all suffer as a consequence. “The UK is currently facing the very real threat of avian influenza and on the fifth anniversary of the devastating outbreak of FMD, we must be confident that there are enough experienced veterinary surgeons to maintain an excellent service across the UK. The Farmers Weekly survey, however, provides yet another indicator that farm animal practice is in decline, not least due to falling incomes and an out of hours rota that is increasingly untenable. The decline mirrors the downturn in profitability of agriculture in the UK but the consequences are that disease surveillance and early identification of new and emerging diseases are compromised, with all the associated risks to public as well as animal health. The fact that owners of farm animals in some rural communities are already unable to access veterinary services also highlights very real animal welfare concerns. “The sustainability of rural communities is also being affected as this important group of employers, residents and service-providers decline”. Looking to the future Dr Scott-Park suggested that “ it may well be that cross-compliance funding could be part of the solution as might a structured approach to ensuring farm animal veterinary surgeons are central to the health planning on every farm. In the meantime the BVA urges Defra and Government to heed the findings of this survey and to consider the root causes behind the decline in rural veterinary practice.”

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