ADDRESSING CURRICULUM DEFICIENCIES IN VETERINARY PUBLIC HEALTH: A COMPARISON OF OTHER HEALTH PROFESSIONS ‟ EXPERIENCES

The history of veterinary medicine is intimately intertwined with duties to public health. This has remained true over centuries, and is becoming even more important with recent significant threats to public health. Despite this, the veterinary profession is failing to meet increasing needs for veterinarians trained in population medicine and public health, nationally and internationally. Current accreditation requirements for veterinary schools and colleges are vague with regard to public health education, leaving each college or school of veterinary medicine to implement its own perception of veterinary public health education. Is the public health education in veterinary curricula adequate among U.S. veterinary colleges and schools? Our inventory of the veterinary curricula in the 28 U.S. veterinary schools and colleges revealed inadequacies in veterinary public health education delivery. We found that most colleges and schools are lacking in the major veterinary public health subjects as recommended by the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and the World Health Organization