By Travis Justice
Arkansas Farm Bureau

Last year’s bevy of food-safety alerts helped make the nation’s food supply a “top-of-mind” issue to many consumers.

Several meat recalls for various reasons — plus another just last month — the contaminated spinach episode, and concerns with several imported Chinese products have forced food industry groups, production companies and even Congress to wade-in on creation of additional safeguards — all in the name of consumer protection.

Amidst the clamor is an evolving dilemma that, too, raises questions over future food-safety efforts.

It’s somewhat common knowledge within the nation’s animal industries that a growing shortage of food-animal veterinarians concerns the food-safety community. A study the Food Supply Veterinary Medical Coalition recently released noted the United States livestock and meat industries have one of the world’s best health and safety records.

However, the study warned that this status “may be threatened in the years ahead because of a projected severe shortage of food-animal veterinarians.”

Public health officials are worried that such a shortage can lead to disease outbreaks and potentially can endanger human health and threaten our food supply.

The American Veterinary Medical Association estimates the shortage at a relatively small four percent. Health officials nevertheless are concerned that even a small gap increases the possibility that diseases will go undetected.

Even in Arkansas, we’ve noticed a decline in the number of veterinarians involved in food-animal practice. Recently released data from the Arkansas Veterinary Medical Licensing Board indicates that farm-animal practitioners make up only 17 percent of Arkansas’ 600-plus licensed veterinarians.

As in most states, the majority of veterinarians concentrate on small, companion animals. Others are involved with meat inspection, public health regulatory work or as health-product consultants or educators.

A call to action

Most veterinary school graduates opt for a relatively more lucrative companion-animal practice. Therefore, we may need incentives, public or otherwise that attract more veterinary students to food-animal health and safety.

Currently, the state Department of Higher Education pays the additional tuition for Arkansas students attending veterinary schools outside the state. Unfortunately, this effort is limited in scope because we don’t have our own veterinary school and must rely on agreements with neighboring states to place Arkansas veterinary students.

At present, only 12 slots are available for Arkansas students in out-of-state schools: nine at Louisiana State University and one each at University of Missouri, Oklahoma State University and Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

Congress did pass the National Veterinary Medical Service Act in 2004. Up to now, however, Congress has not provided enough funding for programs and incentives to help slow the shrinking body of food-animal veterinarians even a little.

Thus, service to the nation’s farm and food industries is declining as well, in both quantity and quality.

Some may view placement of more students in veterinary schools as strictly an educational problem. Food and animal safety can, and perhaps should, be the overriding concern, however.

We need to remember, though, that food-animal vets are one of the first lines of defense in monitoring and keeping our food supply safe. Put another way, indeed, we do need protection from tidal waves.

But we need not overlook the leaks in our own boat.