INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS TO PROVIDE A WELL-TRAINED AQUATIC VETERINARY WORKFORCE TO ASSIST AQUACULTURE INDUSTRIES AND OWNERS

A. David Scarfe*, Timothy J. Miller-Morgan, Dušan Palić, Howard H.K. Wong & Gillian Taylor
*Aquatic Veterinary Associates International, LLC (Bartlett, IL, USA) and Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria (S. Africa)  
dscarfe@ameritech.net
 

 

With increasing impacts of diseases on aquaculture production in all countries, the need for a well-trained aquatic veterinary workforce (including veterinarians and para-veterinarians - veterinary technicians or nurses, and non-veterinary "aquatic animal health professionals) has become a global imperative.  Numerous educational efforts are underway ensure that sufficient numbers are available to support aquaculture industries, producers, governmental agencies and a myriad of supporting industries that provide services or products to prevent, control or eradicate diseases. Without this infrastructure, sustainable and economically viable aquaculture will simply not thrive.

A number of International and National veterinary organizations have, or are developing processes to determine, evaluate, harmonize and accredit veterinary education throughout the world. the educational needs within veterinary degree-earning curricular, and extracurricular continuing education and professional development (CEPD) programs, to ensure an adequate veterinary workforce to meet contemporary and societal needs. These include, but are not limited to the World Veterinary Association (WVA), the Council on International Veterinary Medical Education, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the North American Veterinary Medical Education Consortium (NAVMEC), the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE). Although organizations all are addressing aquatic veterinary education to some degree, two are focusing on ensuring aquatic are addressed in veterinary curricular and CEPD programs - the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association (WAVMA), and the International Partnership on Aquatic Veterinary Education (i-PAVE).

The WAVMA Aquatic Veterinary Certification (CertAqV) Program uses to certify veterinarians who have Day-1 competency to practice aquatic veterinary medicine (equivalent to competencies required of individual receiving a veterinary degree), has identified 9 core subjects. To build on WAVMA and other veterinary organization's efforts, i-PAVE has embarked on a multi-year project to verify and validate the aquatic veterinary knowledge, skills and experience (KSEs) needed in any country, using a DACUM/SCID Process. This process for Developing A CurriculUM (DACUM), that includes a Systematic Curriculum and Instructional Development (SCID) for validating any educational curriculum, involves workshops in N. and S. America, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific, to verify the KSEs needed, using veterinarians actively practicing aquatic veterinary medicine. Each workshop is then followed by a survey of every veterinary school in each region, to determine which of the core aquatic veterinary subjects are actually covered in veterinary school curricula, or veterinary CEPD programs.

Preliminary information from previous surveys of N. American and European veterinary schools, and completed DACUM workshops, suggests that North America, Australia/New Zealand and Western Europe currently may have sufficient educational opportunities to train an adequate aquatic veterinary workforce. However, many veterinary schools need to include important aquatic veterinary subjects to ensure all subject-matter needs are fulfilled.