The Scope of Veterinary Science
Veterinary training is broad and provides a wide variety of challenging and rewarding career opportunities. Although many people think of veterinary science and what veterinarians do only in terms of clinical practice, veterinarians also work in many other fields.
Clinical veterinary services are of national importance in promoting the health, welfare and productivity of farm animals, including cattle, sheep, goats, deer, pigs and poultry. Developing animal industries, such as the farming of llamas, alpacas, ostriches, emus and fish require veterinary services too. Similarly, high quality veterinary care is essential for the well-being of companion animals such as dogs, cats, birds, and horses kept for leisure activities, all of which play a very important part in the well-being of the human population. Veterinarians play an important role in the horse and greyhound racing industries.
Many veterinarians are employed in government departments, particularly the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. They play a critical role in helping to ensure that exotic diseases are not brought into the country and that there are ways of dealing with them if they do enter, and in ensuring the animal products that New Zealand exports are of the standard and quality required by our overseas customers. Veterinarians are involved in the provision of diagnostic services by both the government and private laboratories.
Further employment opportunities exist for veterinarians in research institutes and universities researching animal health and disease, and the relationship between animal infections and public health. Additionally, they work in the pharmaceutical industry developing and marketing products used for the prevention and treatment of diseases in animals. Increasingly, veterinarians are employed by zoos and wildlife services as veterinary expertise becomes critical in ensuring disease control and reproductive success in captive or free-living wild animals and birds that are under threat of extinction.
The wide range of demands placed upon veterinarians means that most restrict their activities to particular aspects of veterinary science. There are also opportunities for advanced training in many clinical areas and in disciplines such as pathology, bacteriology, virology, parasitology, immunology and epidemiology, all of which are essential for the diagnosis and investigation of diseases.
Further information on career opportunities is given later in this book, but it is hoped that this will give you some idea of the scope of veterinary science. To maintain and develop these many different areas of veterinary activity, New Zealand must have a strong and progressive veterinary profession supported by a first class Veterinary Science programme at Massey University.
Career opportunities
From the papers for the BVSc programme you will see that veterinary students receive a broadly based scientific training. Because of this, once qualified, they have many avenues in which they can use their professional qualifications. About two-thirds of graduates go into veterinary practice of some type. Some go into industry and provide important scientific advisory services and may rise to senior administrative posts. Some go into the State Services, in particular the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry which employs several groups of people who deal with animal health problems, quality control of primary products and research. Important national and international administrative posts are also available in the Ministry of Agriculture. In the universities, there are research and teaching opportunities, with increasing areas of research becoming available. Other employment fields include laboratory animal management, research and teaching, wildlife medicine and conservation, and zoo medicine.
As well as being registrable in New Zealand, the Bachelor of Veterinary Science degree allows the holder to register as a veterinarian in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the USA, and a number of other countries.
The following is a brief description of the major avenues of employment for veterinary graduates in New Zealand.
Clinical practice
All veterinarians have a professional responsibility to the community and an important part to play in the economic and social well being of the nation. The primary responsibility of veterinarians in practice is to serve the public through the provision of high quality care for the health and welfare of their animals, whether these animals are kept as pets or for leisure activities, are working animals, farm livestock, or wildlife.
Veterinary practices are distributed through the country in towns and rural areas. These may involve one veterinarian working on their own but, more commonly, several veterinarians work together. The type of practice varies according to the location. In large cities, for example, practices may deal only with companion animals such as dogs, cats and caged birds. This is commonly referred to as ‘small animal’ or ‘companion animal’ practice. In farming areas, the emphasis is on farm livestock such as cattle, sheep, deer and pigs, although other animals such as dogs, cats and horses will also be dealt with (‘large animal’ or ‘mixed’ practice). Some practices, particularly in areas where there are large numbers of horses, may deal mainly or solely with them (‘equine practice’).
Veterinarians in clinical practice in New Zealand today generally operate from well-equipped clinics containing x-ray equipment, surgery and animal hospital facilities and laboratory equipment for conducting clinical pathology. There are also private and government-run laboratories that provide diagnostic services for practitioners through the testing of samples of various kinds from their animal patients. These can be for bacteriology, parasitology, virology, pathology, biochemistry and so on. These laboratories commonly employ veterinarians with advanced training.
Clinical practice offers an interesting career with plenty of variety. Apart from other veterinary skills, it requires an ability to assess facts in investigating outbreaks of disease in order to arrive at a satisfactory diagnosis. Common sense, independence and the ability to work with people of the farming community or other animal owners are necessary. The graduate engaged in this work has ample opportunity to exercise and extend knowledge and practical skills gained during university education.
Some special characteristics of particular types of practice
Large animal (farm animal) practice
Diagnosing and treating disease in individual animals is an important part of all clinical practice and in some cases it is the major concern. In farm animal practice, however, the veterinarian has additional responsibilities centred on the flocks and herds that make up farming enterprises. Veterinarians have an important contribution to make to the productivity of these flocks and herds by assisting with the planning and development of flock and herd health programmes, monitoring the health status and production of the animals, often working in collaboration with other animal production advisers. Veterinarians in these practices also have an important part to play in national disease control and eradication schemes, in maintaining the quality of animal products in keeping a lookout for exotic diseases or pests that may be brought into the country and in ensuring and promoting animal welfare.
Equine Practice
Some private practitioners practise only in the care of horses, which makes a valuable contribution to the New Zealand economy. Success in racing requires absolute fitness and by helping to achieve this, veterinarians have significantly contributed to the outstanding reputation of New Zealand’s gallopers and trotters. They also play an important part in keeping horses that are used for other sporting and leisure activities fit and well.
Companion Animal Practice
In larger towns and cities, ample opportunity exists for restriction of practice to companion animal work including cats, dogs and other family pets. Most urban small animal practices use similar techniques to those available at a public hospital. In the field of medicine this involves the diagnosis and treatment of such widely differing diseases as diabetes, dysentery, and cancer. Abdominal, thoracic and orthopaedic surgery is routine, although some procedures require specialised equipment that not every practice may have. The use of techniques such as blood transfusion, fluid therapy and advanced procedures for repairing bone fractures are examples of skills that can be expected of a veterinarian providing surgical services. Within companion animal practice, specialisation is becoming increasingly common so that specialist veterinary ophthalmologists, dermatologists, behaviourists and surgeons accept referrals from other companion animal veterinarians.
New Zealand Food Safety Authority
This authority sets standards for food safety for exports of animal (and horticultural) products, and for meat and dairy products for domestic consumption. The NZFSA Verification Agency is a food safety assurance organisation that provides food evaluation, verification, and certification services to the food production industries. It is concerned with quality control and hygiene in meat and other animal products. This agency is the largest single employer of veterinarians in New Zealand. Many veterinarians work in meat processing establishments and are responsible for the standards of hygiene and meat inspection in meat processing establishments to ensure that meat and meat products are fit for human consumption, and can be certified for export or domestic consumption.
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
There are many career opportunities for veterinarians in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Biosecurity New Zealand
This division of MAF is responsible for developing standards for the importation of animals (and plants) and for developing and ensuring that there are capabilities for managing animal and plant diseases. It also is responsible for animal export standards and for animal welfare standards within New Zealand.
Other MAF Operations
The MAF Quarantine Service protects against animal (and other) disease risks entering the country. It provides importation inspection and clearance services and export certification for animal and plant products.
The National Centre for Disease Investigation is dedicated to the diagnosis of new and emerging animal diseases, and includes the exotic disease response centre.
All of the units of MAF provide challenging career opportunities for veterinarians working as a part of a larger team, and are of great importance to New Zealand.
Veterinary Diagnostic Services
Diagnostic Services are provided by government and privately owned laboratories. Laboratories are located in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Invermay, and Christchurch. They are staffed by veterinarians, with advanced training in disciplines such as diagnostic pathology, microbiology, virology, parasitology, clinical biochemistry and haematology.
Education
An important employer of veterinary graduates is the education sector, with the Veterinary Science Programme at Massey University being the major employer in this area. Veterinary staff are responsible for most aspects of the training of BVSc undergraduates, Diploma in Veterinary Nursing students and postgraduate veterinary studies up to doctoral level.
An important aspect of the work of the staff is the conduct of research and supervision of postgraduate student research.
Crown Research Institutes
Research into animal health and production is carried out in a number of centres around the country. Animal research is conducted principally at the AgResearch Centres in Palmerston North, Ruakura, Upper Hutt and Invermay. Veterinarians play important roles in all aspects of animal research and artificial breeding and in the extension of research findings to other members of the profession and to the farming community.
Much of the animal health activity of AgResearch occurs on the Massey University campus in co-location with the Veterinary School in the Hopkirk Centre.
Research and technical services in industry
As you would expect in any economy which is so firmly based on animal production, a considerable industry exists in New Zealand to provide veterinary pharmaceuticals, feedstuffs, and other aids to the maintenance of animal health and production. This industry requires the professional skills of veterinarians, and there are posts available in such fields as technical advisory services and research. Many of these can lead to senior executive management roles.
International Veterinary Science
There are development projects for livestock industries in overseas countries. A number of veterinarians are involved in projects concerned with this development, with some projects being on a very large scale.
Other career opportunities
A veterinary degree can lead to a great diversity of other careers including employment in animal welfare, conservation biology, specialist clinic construction, animal feed formulation and manufacture, and zoological parks.
Remuneration levels for Veterinarians
Veterinarians consistently rate highly as respected members of society. A survey of the members of the New Zealand Veterinary Association conducted in 2004, reported an average salary for veterinarians up to three years after graduation to be $52,000. The same survey showed the average total remuneration for veterinarians overall to be approximately $77,000.