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I have just finished reading a paper from New Zealand(1) looking at the impact on rural vets of being involved in an exotic disease outbreak with their clients. In the case of the paper, it refers to Mycoplasma Bovis, a condition which New Zealand has worked really hard to tackle. It could just as easily be about Avian Influenza, Brucella canis, or even Bovine TB.

The findings are perhaps not shocking, but nonetheless they have set me thinking about the trauma that our profession can suffer in the pursuit of disease eradication. Bearing witness to perceived injustice and knowledge of the harm caused to farmers and their livestock gave rise to feelings of moral distress in the individuals involved.

When I look at my own time in practice, I can think of times where I might have been guilty of thinking about the ‘person from the ministry’, or Official Veterinarian engaging in crucial surveillance and enforcement action as I should have called them, was considered as a faceless entity, somehow hugely different to the farmer, and me, their plucky animal health advocate.

As I look forward to how we can build #TeamVet in all its guises I can recognise that it is beholden on all of us who work with animal keepers or owners to build and revere the role of the OV.

From surveillance, to food safety and animal welfare at the abbatoir, and of course enabling export markets for our foodstuffs, we would be entirely lost without them.

Thank you to all our veterinary colleagues who dedicate their work to improving and maintaining public health.

References

1. Doolan-Noble F, Noller G, Jay C, Bryan M; Moral distress in rural veterinarians as an outcome of Mycoplasma bovis incursion in southern New Zealand. New Zealand Veterinary Journal. Feb 2023

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