Government must address growing shortage of federal veterinarians

AVMA tells Senate subcommittee that nation is at risk

A new report is raising concerns that the federal government’s veterinarian workforce isn’t large enough to guarantee a safe food supply and effectively address zoonotic diseases.

The Government Accounting Office, which authored the report, found that the departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services have not assessed the sufficiency of their veterinarian workforces despite the fact that agencies employing “mission-critical” veterinarians are currently experiencing shortages or anticipating future shortages.

As a result, USDA agencies such as the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and Food Safety and Inspection Service compete with one another for veterinarians instead of trying to balance the needs of the agencies, according to the report. Moreover, because the USDA and DHHS aren’t fully aware of the status of the veterinarian workforces at their component agencies, neither department can strategically plan for future veterinarian needs.

The GAO report titled “Veterinarian workforce: Actions are needed to ensure sufficient capacity for protecting public health and animal health” was the focus of a Feb. 26 hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia.

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