Assessing veterinary medical education with regard to the attraction, admission, and education of students interested in food supply veterinary medicine and retention of student interest in a career in the food supply sector

There is growing recognition of a need to redefine traditional food animal veterinary medicine, not only from the standpoint of the skills, knowledge, and abilities required of veterinarians but also from the standpoint of the organizational structures, delivery teams, new breadth of roles, and geographic scope. In the 1970s and 1980s, when we began to practice production medicine, the delivery team included decision makers for the production unit: veterinarians, producers, lenders, nutritionists, animal breeders, and agricultural engineers. Strategies and approaches were geared toward health, welfare, and enterprise productivity. Today, the delivery team includes a broader set of decision makers: appointed and elected government officials, regulatory and law enforcement officials, homeland security advisors, emergency managers, public health practitioners, and CEOs of the biological and pharmaceutical industry. Strategies and approaches are geared toward assuring the health and welfare of animals in multiple livestock industries, protecting the food supply, retaining international markets, and maintaining consumer confidence. This issue of the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education addresses the theme of a changing food animal practitioner, with the area now more appropriately termed “food supply veterinary medicine” in recognition of the expanded role of the veterinary practitioner.1 Several articles in this issue address the need for new directions in health care delivery by species, by livestock industry, and by the full scope of responsibilities for both animal and human health. Others address the need to restructure food animal medicine clinical experiences. This article takes a somewhat different approach, addressing needs and a potential response from a geographic viewpoint. Academic institutions, academic veterinarians, and veterinary students are a critically underutilized resource in meeting global needs for livestock security. While governments ponder complex decisions under a blizzard of conflicting information, non-governmental organizations may find themselves with adequate funding but limited human resources and limited expertise, and people in need go on wanting. Our academic resources need to become formally involved. An effective mechanism to inform educators about the future needs of the profession, adjust academic curricula, and develop a strategy to better utilize our significant academic resources must be identified immediately. “Food animal medicine” has now appropriately expanded into “food supply veterinary medicine.” The issues considered include livestock health and production, product wholesomeness, and distribution and availability of products to meet the needs of global consumers. These issues suggest the need for a comprehensive approach encompassing a vast industry. As veterinarians, we find ourselves employed across all sectors, and we should be a valuable guiding and connecting resource in this food chain. Additional areas of growing importance are bio-security and policy surrounding transboundary, emerging, and bioterrorism-related disease (TEB diseases). Many of the concepts we apply to all three are very similar. The following sections of this article reflect critical considerations toward a hemispheric approach to protection of livestock resources and foods of animal origin. We begin by thinking locally, then nationally, then regionally, and discuss a broad network solution. There is a critical need to consider the role of veterinary education in preparing food supply veterinarians for the future. Dr. Corrie Brown initiates our thinking by focusing on what is needed for early diagnosis and rapid response to a TEB disease; very significant veterinary roles exist at the local level. Dr. Pamela Ibarra reflects on her experiences in Mexico in describing the nature of national responses to protect livestock resources. Dr. Luis Espinoza describes the leadership and projects that are part of the programs of the Organismo Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (OIRSA), a regional animal health organization in Central America. Dr. Everardo Gonzalez Padilla summarizes the perceived needs and discusses a possible network solution. Glenn Slack then issues a challenge to academic veterinary medicine to ensure that the attributes of graduating veterinarians match the needs of society. In an environment of global travel and trade, asymmetric warfare targeting agricultural resources, and rapidly increasing worldwide human populations, hunger, and poverty, the veterinary profession must respond. The profession will look for leaders, and institutions of veterinary education must be among them. THE IMPACT OF EARLY DIAGNOSIS (CORRIE BROWN) A rapid response is required to avoid economic devastation resulting from TEB diseases of animals. However, response mechanisms cannot be activated until the presence of disease is detected. Therefore, early diagnosis is critical. This early diagnosis requires three factors: recognition that there is a disease in the field, sufficient laboratory capacity, and a government with the will to be involved.

The Food Supply Veterinary Medicine Coalition (FSVMC) was formed in 2004 with a mission to assure the pub- lic that food continues to be abundant, safe, and wholesome by ensuring that veterinarians are appropriately involved throughout the food supply system. The premise of the FSVMC is that safety and wholesomeness of food are enhanced when veterinarians are included in all steps of production and processing. Studies were commissioned by the FSVMC in May 2004 to implement a far-reaching research program to exam- ine the demand and supply patterns for food animal veterinarians and the issues that affect and shape those pat- terns. The FSVMC provided support and guidance during development of the research program. Members of the FSVMC include the Academy of Veterinary Consultants, American Association of Avian Pathologists, American Association of Bovine Practitioners, American Association of Food Hygiene Veterinarians, American Association of Small Ruminant Practitioners, American Association of Swine Veterinarians, American Veterinary Medical Association, Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, and the USDA-Food Safety and Inspection Service. In addition, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association was extremely supportive of this research program and instrumental in promoting data collection in Canada. Bayer Animal Health provided substantial financial support and participated in discussions regarding conduct of the studies. Attracting students into careers in food supply veterinary medicine represents the first in a series of 3 articles that will provide results and analysis of the information gathered during the research program. The other 2 articles in the series (one will evaluate effects of changing careers within veterinary medicine, job retention, job satisfaction, and career commitment on the demand for and availability of veterinarians for careers in food supply veterinary med- icine, and the other will examine the future demand, likely shortages, and strategies for creating a better future for veterinarians in food supply veterinary medicine) will be published in subsequent issues of the JAVMA. These 3 arti- cles constitute the Executive Summary for the research program. It is hoped that this series of articles generates meaningful discussions and yields creative and appropriate solu- tions for this important aspect of the veterinary profession.

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This article examines the job expectations of applicants as reported by recruiters interviewing food-supply veterinary medicine (FSVM) candidates and the career-choice decision factors used by year 3 and 4 veterinary students pursuing careers in FSVM. The responses of 1,047 veterinary recruiters and 270 year 3 and 4 students with a food-supply focus from 32 colleges of veterinary medicine in the United States and Canada were examined. Recruiters were asked to report the two most important job factors applicants took into account when deciding to accept an offer; students were asked the two most important reasons for choosing a career in FSVM and the two most important benefits of working as a food-supply veterinarian. Recruiters reported that high salaries and good benefits are the two most important decision factors. Interest in the food-animal career area and a desire for a rural, outdoor lifestyle were the top reasons students gave for choosing an FSVM career. Students saw the enjoyment of working with and helping producers and food animals as the most important benefits of a career in FSVM.

Food supply veterinarians, those who service the dairy, swine, poultry, small ruminant, and beef cattle industries, benefit society by protecting animal and public health and ensuring a safe, wholesome food supply. However, there are not enough entering the workforce to meet current and future demands. Non-formal learning environments can be used as a recruitment tool to provide participants with positive interactions and hands-on experiences. To build awareness of food supply veterinary medicine (FSVM) in youth, we developed an immersion program designed to provide high school students with hands-on experiences with food animal species. Day camps were held during the summers of 2022 and 2023, each coordinated with multiple partners at different locations in central Ohio. Year One camp utilized registration and post-test surveys and Year Two utilized matching pre- and post-test for analysis. Over the two programs, 110 participants engaged in hands-on experiences, including: outbreak investigations, measuring clinical parameters, performing diagnostics, and basic veterinarian procedures. Pre- and post-test evaluations were performed to measure changes in participants' attitudes and perceptions, and a McNemars test was used to evaluate Year Two data. In Year One, we saw positive shifts in those interested in FSVM careers. In Year Two, we saw positive shifts in knowledge of FVSM careers, with biosecurity knowledge increasing. Outreach activities like day camps can be replicated in other locations to increase interest in FSVM careers.

The real and/or perceived shortage of veterinarians serving food-supply veterinary medicine has been a topic of considerable discussion for decades. Regardless of this debate, there are issues still facing colleges of veterinary medicine (CVMs) about the best process of educating future food-supply veterinarians. Over the past several years, there have been increasing concerns by some that the needs of food-supply veterinary medicine have not adequately been met through veterinary educational institutions. The food-supply veterinary medical curriculum offered by individual CVMs varies depending on individual curricular design, available resident animal population, available food-animal caseload, faculty, and individual teaching efforts of faculty. All of the institutional members of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) were requested to share their Food Animal Veterinary Career Incentives Programs. The AAVMC asked all member institutions what incentives they used to attract and educate students interested in, or possibly considering, a career in food-supply veterinary medicine (FSVM). The problem arises as to how we continue to educate veterinary students with ever shrinking budgets and how to recruit and retain faculty with expertise to address the needs of society. Several CVMs use innovative training initiatives to help build successful FSVM programs. This article focuses on dairy, beef, and swine food-animal education and does not characterize colleges' educational efforts in poultry and aquaculture. This review highlights the individual strategies used by the CVMs in the United States.

Food-supply veterinary medicine has been an essential part of veterinary degree programs in Australia since the first veterinary school opened in the late nineteenth century. Australian veterinary schools, like others internationally, are being challenged by the relevance of material in current curricula for modern food-supply veterinary medicine. Additionally, student aspirations are a major issue, as curriculum designers balance companion-animal training with the herd/flock-based issues that focus on productivity and profitability. One of the challenges is to examine the relative balance of education in generic skills (self-knowledge, change management, teamwork, leadership, negotiation) with more technically or scientifically based education. An ongoing process of curriculum review and renewal, which involves input from both external and internal stakeholders and allows regular review and assessment, is needed to ensure continuing curriculum relevance.

The importance of recruiting and retaining new food animal veterinarians is well known, and many groups are working on recruitment tools and programs. One of the recognized barriers to interest in food supply veterinary medicine is students' lack of experience and concomitant discomfort with food animal practice. Therefore, in 2008, we began offering an elective to first and second-year veterinary students, the Food Animal Production Tour, to provide students with little experience an opportunity to learn about large state-of-the-art food animal production units. We also wanted to provide students with demonstrated interest and more experience an opportunity to solidify and advance their career goals. The objective of this study was to assess the learning outcomes of the course by administering pre- and post-surveys of students' self-evaluation of learning as well as pre- and post-tests of knowledge of food animal production and veterinary roles.

Simple SummaryMachine learning (ML) is subfield of artificial intelligence that enables computers to learn from data and improve their performance without being explicitly programmed by a human. ML has the potential to enhance veterinary medical education by improving learning, teaching, and assessments. This primer introduces ML concepts to veterinary educators and administrators, highlighting their similarities and differences with classical statistics. It then provides a step-by-step example using simulated veterinary student data to address a specific question: which records in the simulated veterinary student data will predict a student passing or failing a specific course. The example demonstrates the use of the Python programming language to create a random forest ML prediction model, a type of ML algorithm which is composed of many decision trees and each of these trees is composed of nodes and leaves. During the creation of the random forest model, we emphasize specific considerations such as managing student records which may have missing information. The results show how decisions made by veterinary educators during ML model creation may impact which type of records are shown to be most important. While this form of ML may prove to be beneficial, transparency in creating ML models is crucial, and further research is needed to establish best practices and guidelines for veterinary medical education ML projects.Machine learning (ML) offers potential opportunities to enhance the learning, teaching, and assessments within veterinary medical education including but not limited to assisting with admissions processes as well as student progress evaluations. The purpose of this primer is to assist veterinary educators in appraising and potentially adopting these rapid upcoming advances in data science and technology. In the first section, we introduce ML concepts and highlight similarities/differences between ML and classical statistics. In the second section, we provide a step-by-step worked example using simulated veterinary student data to answer a hypothesis-driven question. Python syntax with explanations is provided within the text to create a random forest ML prediction model, a model composed of decision trees with each decision tree being composed of nodes and leaves. Within each step of the model creation, specific considerations such as how to manage incomplete student records are highlighted when applying ML algorithms within the veterinary education field. The results from the simulated data demonstrate how decisions by the veterinary educator during ML model creation may impact the most important features contributing to the model. These results highlight the need for the veterinary educator to be fully transparent during the creation of ML models and future research is needed to establish guidelines for handling data not missing at random in medical education, and preferred methods for model evaluation.

Ideas about centers of emphasis and veterinary medical teaching consortia have resurfaced to attract students into food-supply veterinary medicine (FSVM). From 1988 to 2000 a multiple veterinary school consortium approach to food-animal production medicine (FAPM) teaching was conducted to handle regional differences in case load, faculty strengths, and student interests. Six universities developed a memorandum of understanding to provide a wide variety of in-depth, species-specific clinical experiences in FAPM to balance their individual strengths and weakness in addressing food-animal agriculture, to provide for student exchange and faculty development, and to conduct research in food safety. Changes in leadership, redirection of funds, failure to publicize the program to faculty and students, and a focus on research as opposed to teaching led to dissolution of the consortium. However, this approach could work to improve recruitment and retention of students in FSVM if it focused on student exchange, fostered a more integrated curriculum across schools, encouraged faculty involvement, garnered institutional support, and used modern technology in teaching. Private veterinary practices as well as public/corporate practices could be integrated into a broader food-animal curriculum directed at building competency among FSVM students by providing the in-depth training they require. Requirements for the success of this type of program will include funding, marketing, leadership, communication, coordination, integration, and dedicated people with the time to make it work.

Major concerns in the demand and supply of veterinarians for food supply veterinary medicine (FSVM) involve job satisfaction, changes in occupational area (ie, switching careers within veterinary medicine), and commitment to a career in FSVM. To create meaningful strategies aimed at increasing the commitment of veterinary students and practitioners to this area of veterinary medicine, a thorough understanding of the forces that influence job satisfaction, changes in occupational area, and career commitment in the field of FSVM is needed. The study reported here was conducted to generate information about veterinary students and practitioners who change their focus from food animal medicine to other occupational areas in the veterinary profession. The phenomenon of switching careers in veterinary medicine has been discussed in terms of the early years during the career of veterinarians, when they choose to leave their first job and change their occupational area. It has been reported 1

An invited perspective on the shortage of veterinarians in food supply veterinary medicine

Future demand, probable shortages, and strategies for creating a better future in food supply veterinary medicine

Concerns about lack of available jobs in rural veterinary practice (RVP) and ironically difficulties attracting new veterinarians are commonly expressed within the veterinary community. Reports on supply and demand for rural veterinarians have produced conflicting results. A 1990's economic study forecasted a 3.0% increase in available veterinarians in large animal private practice and a 1.7% decrease in demand from 1997 to 2015. However, a later study forecasted a shortage of food supply veterinary medicine (FSVM) veterinarians from 2004 to 2016 ranging from 0.1% (poultry veterinarians) to 6.9% (federal animal health), with mixed food animal practice at 6.6%.

BackgroundImproving quality of life in veterinary medicine has emerged as an important topic. One factor which may influence quality of life in medical education is mistreatment (verbal abuse, power abuse, and physical abuse to establish and maintain a power hierarchy). Although it has been documented in medical education, its occurrence in veterinary education is not yet known.MethodsThird year veterinary students were invited to participate in an anonymous and voluntary survey on mistreatment during the preclinical and clinical education. Students were asked if they witnessed and/or experienced a mistreatment, the type of mistreatment, and the person responsible for administering the mistreatment. Quality of life scores were obtained using the Medical Outcomes Trust short form questionnaire (SF-36). An analysis of variance (ANOVA) model followed by pairwise Least Significant Difference post hoc comparison was used to investigate the relationship variables.ResultsFifty-five of 60 students (91.7%) that completed the questions on mistreatment indicated that they experienced and/or witnessed a mistreatment during veterinary education. 92% of students that experienced a mistreatment said that it interfered with the learning environment but only 29% of students reported the mistreatment at the time that it occurred. The most common mistreatment was public humiliation (78.3%) followed by special treatment based on gender (63.3%) and racially or ethnically offensive remarks (28.3%). Only racially or ethnically insensitive remarks were associated with a lower quality of life score in the social functioning category (p = 0.0131).ConclusionsMistreatment frequently occurred during the preclinical and clinical education of veterinary students in this population and interfered with the learning environment. The only mistreatment associated with a lower quality of life score was racially insensitive remarks. Programs to educate students and clinicians/staff about mistreatment and how to handle education in a stressful clinical and a preclinical setting may be of benefit in the future.Clinical trial numberNot applicable.