Veterinary Issues Research Articles

Survey of veterinary technical and professional skills in students and recent graduates of a veterinary college.

To determine perceptions of veterinary technical and professional skills among veterinary students and recent graduates. Cross-sectional study. 281 students and 142 recent graduates from the Ontario Veterinary College. A survey was designed and administered to first- through fourth-year students and veterinarians who had graduated either 1 or 6 years before survey administration. Overall response rate was 70%. Learning about technical and professional skills was highly valued. Most participants felt they had not received instruction about professional skills, but those who had felt more competent about them. Perceptions of competence increased slightly with increased comfort discussing emotional veterinary issues with instructors. Neither gender nor increased age was related to increased feelings of competence. Almost all fourth-year students felt competent and comfortable about examining an animal with the client present, assessing suffering, diagnosing parvovirus infection, performing surgery, and working as group members. However, many did not feel competent or comfortable about delivering bad news, setting time limits yet providing quality service, helping clients with limited funds make treatment decisions, dealing with demanding people, and euthanasia. Feelings of competence and comfort were closely related but were not identical. In the interests of best preparing entry-level veterinarians, technical and professional skills need to be emphasized in a learning environment where students feel comfortable discussing emotional veterinary issues. A professional skills curriculum addressing underlying self-awareness, communication, and interpersonal issues, as well as procedural matters, would likely increase the proportion of fourth-year students who feel competent and comfortable about professional skills by the end of their undergraduate training.

Latest news on important veterinary issues

Latest news on important veterinary issues

Latest news on important on important veterinary issues

Latest news on important on important veterinary issues

Veterinary issues survey—Part II: Employment prospects and business needs

Veterinary issues survey—Part II: Employment prospects and business needs

Veterinary issues survey—Part I: Professional association activities

Veterinary issues survey—Part I: Professional association activities

Residue Phobia, Residue Avoidance and the Real World

The goal of this paper is to deal with food safety and veterinary therapeutic issues from the consumer, veterinarian and pharmaceutical industry perspective. We start with problems the food animal veterinary practitioner faces concerning the choice of therapeutic agents. Next, safety issues concerning these agents are dealt with, in an attempt to provide background information on the approval process for therapeutic agents that are used in lactating dairy cattle. We build on the safety issues by describing how residue testing is done by the dairy industry. And finally, the Upjohn Company's injectable antibiotic, Naxcel® Sterile powder (Ceftiofur sodium), is used as example of how new generation therapeutic agents can be developed and approved under guidelines that meet the consumer's need for safe dairy products and still provide the veterinarian with efficacious treatments for their patients.

New food safety initiatives in the Food and Drug Administration.

Concern over the presence of veterinary drug residues in food has been increasing world wide. Because of this concern the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has been involved on an international basis in efforts to develop food safety standards for veterinary drugs. The major thrust of the Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods (CC/RVDF) has been to achieve international agreement on veterinary drugs issues. CVM is an active participant on this committee. The CC/RVDF has established a list of priority veterinary drugs that are, or that have the potential to cause trade problems as the result of public health concerns. Included in this list are anabolic hormones, chloramphenicol, sulfonamides, nitrofurans, nitroimidazoles, somatotropins, benzimidazoles and trypanocides. In the upcoming years, the CC/RVDF will work toward developing international maximum residue levels for these compounds. The evaluation of the toxicity of veterinary drug-bound residues is another area of international concern. In conjunction with the Bureau of Veterinary Medicine, Health and Welfare Canada, CVM is developing guidelines on biological models to demonstrate the safety of veterinary drug-bound residues. In working with veterinary drug regulators from other countries, CVM has new solutions to human food safety problems.

Veterinary issues: Discussion group report

The purpose of this discussion group was to examine a number of medical issues related to the fertility of great apes in captivity. Scientists and clinicians representing institutions and projects that impact these areas were invited to present their most recent findings and to describe the diagnostic resources available to the primary health care team. (See Table I.) The final goal of the group was to suggest a protocol for a medical examination to determine the cause of infertility. This protocol, given in Table II, is an outline for the clinician gathering data on an individual infertile ape as well as on reproductively successful individuals and groups. It should be used as a starting point; any of the headings may be fully explored by the investigator as suggested by the case.