The ecovet international site has officially gone live! Word is spreading..... Feel free to share your thoughts, research, frustrations, achievements, your latest brainstorm on environmental agendas, the veterinary role in conservation, or dish on the latest relevant training and preparation going on in veterinary and tech school these days. Whew...That was a mouth full. You get the point.
There's a lot of buzz these days about emerging zoonotic diseases with climate change, global travel, and urbanization placing people and animals in close proximity. Clearly there's a definite role for veterinary professionals in all of this. When people ask me, however, I always struggle to break it down in a few sentences.
The public image of the veterinarian is still tied almost soley to the private practice veterinarian or to the beloved stories of James Herriot. As a profession, we've largely pigeon-holed ourselves in this category, but the truth of the matter is that veterinarians are trained to work in many different capacities; herd medicine, companion animal health, research, public health, and medical writing to name a few.
A trend that seemed to emerge in the early ninties was defined by more and more perspective vet students enrolling in vet school with the intention of working in conservation medicine. The trend stuck, and there is an almost equal number of practicing veterinarians and technicians who are interested in branching out into the wildlife health sector (just go to any veterinary conference and start the discussion). Unfortunately, there are several obstacles making the path to a career in wildlife a difficult one: First, as a profession, we need to better define how veterinarians can contribute to environmental conservation initiatives, and more importantly, we have to effectively translate this to the scientific community, policy makers, and the public. Second, we have to start developing a clear and effective course of training for veterinarians pursuing careers in this field.
Any ideas? Let's start brainstorming..........