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As an Alternate Delegate to the American Veterinary Medical Association, I am anxious for all ALVMA members to be aware of what is going on with our national organization. This month there are several articles of interest form the AVMA which I am sharing with you in this issue of E-Vet. Articles describing the real possibility of a shortage of veterinarians to a new study on Q Fever. If you have any questions or if I can be of help as your liaison to the American Veterinary Medical Association, please let me know.
Best Regards-Jan Strother, DVM
AVMA sounds alarm at Senate hearing on shortage of veterinarians
AVMA CEO W. Ron DeHaven appeared before a Senate subcommittee Feb. 26 to address a new report from the Government Accountability Office that details a dangerous shortage of veterinarians available to fill critical positions in the federal government.
Dr. DeHaven testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Federal Workforce Subcommittee that the federal veterinary shortage described in the GAO report could have profound effects on animal and public health.
Also testifying before the subcommittee were Dr. Michael Gilsdorf, executive vice president of the National Association of Federal Veterinarians, and Dr. Marguerite Pappaioanou, executive director of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges.
The GAO report, “Veterinarian workforce actions are needed to ensure sufficient capacity=2 0for protecting public health,” depicts a grave scenario of federal agencies that face a lack of current and future veterinarians to fill critical positions. For example, the report states that the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has an on-the-job vacancy rate of up to 35 percent, and the USDA Agricultural Research Service has a 12 percent shortage of mission-critical veterinarians. According to the report, 27 percent of veterinarians employed by the U.S. Army, Food and Drug Administration, and USDA are eligible to retire within three years.
Should a catastrophic event occur, such as the introduction of a disease devastating to the food animal population, the GAO determined that workforce shortages could stress federal agencies’ response.
“It is alarming to see in black-and-white how ill-prepared our nation appears to be in the event of a major animal disease outbreak, or worse, a pandemic,” Dr. DeHaven told the subcommittee. “Equally disconcerting is the lack of an integrated approach for assessing the current and future needs of the veterinary workforce by many federal agencies that rely on veterinarians to fill critically important public health, food safety, and animal health roles.”
Dr. DeHaven told the subcommittee that the federal veterinary shortage has multiple causes. As reasons for a declining applicant pool, he pointed to soaring veterinary student debt, noncompetitive federal salaries, limited ability to increase the n umber of veterinarians graduating from veterinary schools, and a demographic shift of students away from the rural farm settings that historically produced many food animal veterinarians.
To address the critical shortage of federal veterinarians, the AVMA has sought legislation to provide increased funding to expand capacity at the nation’s 28 veterinary colleges. The AVMA is also working with Congress to change the compensation for federal veterinarians so it is on par with other federal health professionals’, and to reduce student debt through loan repayment programs.
The National Veterinary Medical Service Act, which offers student loan debt relief for graduates who commit to serving in the field of food supply veterinary medicine, was signed into law by Congress in 2003, but no benefits have been realized because of limitations in funding and delays in implementation.
“Our concerns about NVMSA are echoed in the GAO report, which indicates that officials from the USDA believe the money allocated to the program thus far is insufficient and would have minimal impact on the shortage,” Dr. DeHaven said.
With a long history of working with Congress and federal agencies to address the veterinary shortage, the AVMA, according to Dr. DeHaven, remains dedicated to pre-empting challenges to public health. “I am confident that by working together, we can address these challenges, welcome more bright minds into the veterinary profession, and provide our cit izens the level of food safety and security they deserve and expect,” he said.
Study: 22 percent of veterinarians screened had antibodies against Q fever
More than one-fifth of veterinarians screened in a study on Q fever had antibodies against the causative Coxiella burnetii, according to a recent article.
The text, which appeared in the March 1 edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases, states 113 of the 508 veterinarians tested at the 2006 AVMA Annual Convention in Honolulu carried antibodies against the bacteria. The study has also been published online.
Information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates most human Q fever outbreaks in the U.S. relate to occupational exposure involving “veterinarians, meat processing plant workers, sheep and dairy workers, livestock farmers, and researchers at facilities housing sheep.”
The Clinical Infectious Diseases article, “Seroepidemiologic and occupational risk survey for Coxiella burnetii antibodies among US veterinarians,” suggests some veterinarians consider undergoing routine serologic evaluation. It states early diagnosis of endocarditis attributable to C burnetii can prevent comp lications in individuals with heart disease, those undergoing immunosuppressive therapy, and those who are pregnant.
The article states that about 65 percent of those tested who had positive results for the antibodies were men, and a similar portion of those screened were more than 46 years old.
Veterinarians with mixed small/large animal practices or food animal practices were more likely to be seropositive than veterinarians with small animal practices, the article states.
Veterinarians with mobile practices were also more likely to be seropositive.
Routine exposure to freshwater rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds, as well as ditch or sewage water, was also associated with antibody presence. Infection in humans is primarily related to inhalation of airborne bacteria, according to the AVMA backgrounder on Q fever. The bacteria can survive in dust contaminated with feces, birth fluids, and fetal membranes, and humans can also become infected by consuming contaminated, unpasteurized dairy products.
“Vector transmission to humans via ticks and human-to-human transmission is rare,” the backgrounder states. “Domestic dogs and cats may be infected by exposure (ingestion or aerosol) to contaminated excretions or birth products and may then shed the bacteria in milk and urine, thus serving as potential sources of human infection.”
Cattle, sheep, and goats are the bacteria’s primary reservoirs, but other livestock species and domesticated pet s can become infected, according to the CDC.
About half the people infected develop clinical signs, most of them within three weeks after exposure, the backgrounder states. The typical symptoms of acute infections are fevers of up to 105 F for one to two weeks, severe headache, muscle pain, sore throat, disorientation, chills, sweating, coughing, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, chest pain, and weight loss.
Information from the CDC states that between 30 percent and 50 percent of people with symptoms develop pneumonia, most have abnormal liver function, and some develop hepatitis. Between 1 percent and 2 percent of people with acute fever die of infection.
To read the AVMA backgrounder or a Zoonosis Update on Q fever, go to www.avma.org, click on the orange “Public Health” heading on the right side of the page, and follow the Q fever link in the table of contents.
California passes budget without tax on veterinary services
The state of California has dropped the idea of taxing veterinary services, at least in the near term.
A proposed tax on veterinary services was not part of a 17-month budget that the California Legislature passed Feb. 19, three months after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger first called a special session to address the state’s financial emergency.
The governor had proposed, as one of many tax hikes, applying state sales taxes to veterinary services for the first time—but the California VMA organized a successful grassroots campaign opposing the measure.
The CVMA argued that extending the sales tax to veterinary services would endanger the health of companion animals and production animals, increasing the cost of care by about 10 percent—depending on local sales taxes. The California Legislative Analyst’s Office noted that a tax on veterinary services “would create inequities in the tax structure by taxing some services while leaving other similar services untaxed.”
The CVMA encouraged veterinarians and animal owners to ask the governor and state legislators to drop the tax. Members of the governor’s office received so many calls opposing the tax that they created a phone poll to track resistance to the measure.
The CVMA will continue monitoring the state budget situation, because legislators could revise the 17-month plan. Also, a special commission is reviewing the state’s tax structure, and commission members have discussed the idea of service taxes in general.
The AVMA State Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Department, a part of the AVMA Communications Division, reported that the only states that currently collect taxes on veterinary services are Hawaii, New Mexico, and South Dakota.
AVMA Web site offers additional updates on state proposals
The AVMA Web site now features more frequent updates on the status of select state bills and regulations under consideration that would affect the veterinary profession.The AVMA Communications Division’s Department of State Legislative and Regulatory Affairs tracks pertinent proposals in state legislative and executive branches, as well as certain state court cases, providing daily alerts to state VMAs by e-mail and monthly updates to a broader audience via e-mail and the Web.
The monthly reports are online at www.avma.org/advocacy/state/., updates on some state bills and regulations are available every two weeks on the same site. Visitors to the site can find reports by clicking on “Resources by State,” picking a state, and choosing the link under “Legislative and Regulatory Tracking.”
NowThe biweekly updates include th e status and brief summaries of bills and regulations that the AVMA is watching closely in that state. The reports also provide links to the Web sites of the state legislature and state VMA for additional information.
AVMA accepting nominations to GHLIT
The AVMA Executive Board is accepting nominations for a vacancy on the AVMA Group Health and Life Insurance Trust. Dr. H. Theodore Trimmer resigned as a trustee after his recent election to the board. The nomination deadline is May 4. The at-large position carries an unexpired term of June 2009-July 2011. The Executive Board will appoint Dr. Trimmer’s successor at its June meeting. The trustees report annually to the board and to the AVMA House of Delegates. Nominees will have an interest in the subject of insurance and should be willing to devote substantial amounts of time on occasion to projects undertaken by the GHLIT.
Trustees hold three annual meetings but may convene more frequently as necessary. Committees and subcommittees of the trust meet as needed and in such locations as are deemed necessary by the trust chair. For more information about the GHLIT vacancy, contact the AVMA Office o f the Executive Vice President via e-mail at OfficeEVP@avma.org or call AVMA headquarters at (800) 248-2862, Ext. 6605.
AVMA taking applications for headquarters externship
Veterinary students can learn about organized veterinary medicine through an externship at AVMA headquarters.Members of the Student AVMA are eligible for two- to four-week externships that will take place between May 1, 2009, and May 1, 2010, in Schaumburg, Ill., a northwest suburb of Chicago. Five externs will be chosen to take part in the program and receive stipends of up to $1,000 each.Students taking part in the AVMA Headquarters Externship Stipend Program will work with AVMA staff in one or more of the following divisions: Animal Welfare, Communications, Education and Research, Membership and Field Services, Publications, and Scientific Activities, as well as in the American Veterinary Medical Foundation.Division assignments will depend on choice, time, and availability.
Applications, curriculum vitae, statements of interest, letters of approval, and letters of recommendation are due by April 1. The top five applicants will be notified by May 1.
To get more information, students can send a message to tdecarli@avma.org; call (800) 248-2862, Ext. 6693; or go to www.avma.org/savma. Follow the “Services available from the AVMA” link, and click on “AVMA Headquarters Externship Stipend Program.”
Featured in JAVMA
Facts & Figures in the March 15 JAVMA breaks down the results of the latest AVMA economic survey of veterinarians. The data show income growth from 2005 to 2007 for veterinarians in private practice and public or corporate employment.
Also in that issue, the Commentary section provides recommendations for veterinarians to assess abuse risk in families with animals as well as describes the role veterinarians can have in recognizing and reporting abuse and neglect of animals and people.
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