Training future veterinarians to be competent in animal welfare and ethics

Public concern about Animal Welfare and Ethics (AWE) is growing world-wide, and the veterinary curricula should reflect this concern. Veterinarians are in a strong position to contribute practically and rhetorically to this area. However, veterinarians often have different levels of knowledge of animal welfare science and different levels of capacity to reflect upon the ethical dimensions of their actions. To address this disparity, leaders in the field of AWE education were assembled from all eight veterinary schools in Australia and New Zealand to identify means to fulfil educational requirements in these domains. This paper describes the development of shared on-line curriculum resources (entitled One Welfare) for teaching AWE to undergraduate veterinary students across Australia and New Zealand