Abstract
Simple SummaryBiosecurity advice is an important way veterinarians can help farmers to reduce disease burdens on their farms. Many different factors are at play when delivering this advice, one being veterinary competence and their communication skills. This study looked at the private veterinary practitioners’ perceptions of their own competence to deliver biosecurity advice as part of a longitudinal biosecurity project spanning two years. Their responses were collected in the form of a telephone questionnaire. The results showed that as the project progressed the private veterinary practitioners felt more comfortable, better capable, and more consistent in giving their advice. In addition, they felt the uptake of their advice by the famers had improved throughout the study period. The mean average time spent delivering biosecurity advice increased and dropped subsequently, suggesting an initially more thorough process, and later a more efficient process. The results suggest development of the participating veterinarians following the conscious-competence learning model, showing a need to improve the knowledge and training of future generations of vets in the area of biosecurity with an increased focus on the importance of the veterinarian-farmer relationship in particular.Biosecurity advice is an important way veterinarians can help farmers to reduce disease burdens on their farms. Many different factors are at play when delivering this advice, one being veterinary competence and their communication skills. This study looked at the private veterinary practitioners’ perceptions of their own competence to deliver biosecurity advice as part of a longitudinal biosecurity project. Their responses were collected in the form of a telephone questionnaire. The results showed significant increases in private veterinary practitioners’ responses to comfort (p = 0.022), capability (p = 0.002), and consistency (p = 0.006) as well as an increase of uptake of advice (p = 0.015) as the project progressed. The mean time spent delivering biosecurity advice increased and dropped subsequently, suggesting an initially more thorough and later on a more efficient process. The overall perceptions of the veterinarians of the study were also assessed. The results suggest development of the participating veterinarians following the conscious-competence learning model showing a need to improve the knowledge and training of future generations of private veterinary practitioners in the area of biosecurity with, in particular, an increased focus on the importance of the veterinarian–farmer relationship.
Highlights
Biosecurity is the practice aimed at keeping infectious diseases from populations and a key part of safe and efficient farming
Of the ten biosecurity project private veterinary practitioners (PVP), one veterinarian provided their perceptions before the study commenced and one year into the study, but not for the second year
The time spent on giving biosecurity advice went from 21 +/− 7 minutes before the biosecurity project, to 93 +/− 42 min in year one (p < 0.001) and 69 +/− 39 min (p = 0.017) in year two of the project
Summary
Biosecurity is the practice aimed at keeping infectious diseases from populations and a key part of safe and efficient farming. It allows farmers to increase welfare of their animals and reduce production losses due to disease. Some farming sectors, such as the commercial pig industry, have imposed stringent biosecurity measures and shown the importance of keeping disease at bay in these large scale production systems and reducing reliance on antimicrobials [1,2,3]. Private veterinary practitioners (PVP) are more involved on a regular basis with the management process of larger groups, ranging from fertility to mastitis and infectious disease control [4]. In commercial beef production more extensive systems are employed with less intense PVP involvement with their efforts mainly focusing on reproductive management
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