3 Addressing Food Animal Veterinary Services Shortages Through Veterinary Continuing Education Courses: A New Role for Extension as a Bridge Between Veterinary and Agriculture Communities

Abstract

Abstract Food animal veterinary services are in demand due to regulatory changes that require more veterinary oversight in animal agriculture. The USDA identifies 13 counties in Arkansas as having food animal veterinary shortages. In response, the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service developed the Food Animal Medicine Workshop Series to train veterinarians in food animal medicine with the goal of encouraging veterinarians and their staff to provide more food animal services. The workshops are funded by the USDA NIFA Veterinary Services Grant Program, which allows for monthly continuing education (CE) courses for a two year period. Topics covered to date include: how to integrate backyard poultry into your practice, pharmaceutical use in food animal medicine, the Veterinary Feed Directive and the future of antimicrobial use in food animal medicine, infectious diseases in food animals, current issues and advances in food animal wellbeing, small ruminant medicine, cattle medicine, honey bee medicine, field services, and field necropsy. 171 veterinarians have attended the workshops, with an average class size of 18. All participants were awarded CE credits by the Arkansas Veterinary Medical Examining Board. Surveys were given to participants at the end of each course. A Likert scale was used to measure responses to statements about the workshop with 1 being “strongly disagree”, 2 being “disagree”, 3 being “agree” and 4 being “strongly agree”. Participants gave an average score of 3.9 when asked if their knowledge increased from the workshop, an average score of 3.8 when asked if they would attend future workshops in the series, and an average score of 3.2 when asked if they would incorporate what they learned into their practices. Information from the surveys indicates that the workshops are achieving the goal of increasing food animal services. A future survey of attendees will measure the actual increase in such services.