Threat to rural vet service
Secure nine to five jobs in the State veterinary service are looking more and more attractive to vets, compared to the heavy physical and mental demands of looking after the country’s millions of farm livestock. This is a round-the-clock workload for some vets who work on their own, due to the difficulty of hiring veterinary help, especially in remote areas.
The council says there is serious concern among practitioners over whether there is a sustainable future for the veterinary profession in its current form in some regions.
They are concerned at the rising age profile of vets, falling incomes in veterinary practices, and lack of time off.
Some practices may consider reducing their staff levels or encourage people to take early retirement — even if it means some areas could be left without a local vet, or be left with a reduced service, according to the council.
Vets say the financial pressures on farmers, due to changes taking place in agriculture, are in turn having consequences for the viability of veterinary practices.
They are stretched, and their burden is being added to by rising expectations at government level of the health, safety and welfare of animals, and maintenance of food safety standards.
Vets say Ireland is now experiencing the difficulties which have led to the livestock industry in Britain losing access to vets in some regions.
Similar trends seem to have developed in the US, where scarcity of vets is even more marked, and the federal government has to offer bonuses and moving expenses to fill hundreds of vacancies in the food inspection system, even though this is the relatively easy side of veterinary work.
In the US, vets have increasingly chosen to live in urban areas and pursue more lucrative work specialising in pets — a trend likely to be repeated in this part of the world.
The result in America is a shortage of vets who treat farm animals or work as government inspectors — especially in the farm belt, the lightly populated rural areas of the midwest that produce much of the USA’s food.
Out of the 3,077 counties in the US, there are 494 which each have more than 5,000 livestock, but no vet living in the county.
For example, Cherry County in Nebraska has 300,000 farm animals and only three farm vets.
In Ireland, the threat to veterinary services is being highlighted now because new mandatory regulations require many veterinary practices to significantly upgrade their buildings and equipment.
Veterinary Ireland and the Veterinary Council of Ireland both warn that many vets will require financial assistance to comply with the premises regulations; otherwise vets will be forced out of business.
Other veterinary practices would have to rationalise, by bringing a number of smaller veterinary practices together.
The call by the veterinary organisations to help our vets stay in business should be heeded.
It is not just a matter of a farmer being able to lift the phone and seek the help of vet for an animal in distress.
Vets also play a huge role in maintaining our freedom from class A and class B diseases, which enables the Irish food industry to export about 80% of our national production.
Maintaining human health is also at stake. In the past 10 years, 75% of the new or emerging diseases affecting humans are caused by pathogens originating in animals or animal products. And established zoonotic diseases such as brucellosis, cryptosporidiosis, leishmaniasis and echinococcosis continue to affect public health.
A wide distribution of veterinary practices throughout Ireland is needed to continue our excellent animal health and welfare standards, and the economic well-being of Irish agriculture.
Veterinary surveillance is needed for early detection and elimination of such diseases as foot and mouth and bluetongue which threaten dire trade consequences.
For those reasons, any new regulations which put pressure on vets in the field must be very carefully vetted.
And incentives to keep veterinary practitioners in place could have many knock-on benefits.
