Optimal Veterinary Team Utilization Leads to Team Retention.

Retaining and attracting talent in VetMed has become an increasingly difficult challenge and applies to all roles in the veterinary practice. Culture, leadership, training and development, and full role utilization are key factors in retaining current talent, as well as attracting future team members. These elements must work synergistically together to create an environment that team members do not want to leave while also being able to deliver exceptional patient care (fulfilling each team member's sense of purpose).

Practice (In)Efficiency in Veterinary Medicine: Moving from Chaos to Control.

The veterinary profession has long struggled with inefficiency. The challenges of the pandemic and the increase in case load have truly highlighted how significant the in-efficiencies were. By working on more efficient use of the physical plants where veterinary care is delivered; more efficient use of the inventory that is sold; more efficient use of the people that deliver service and care; and more efficient use of systems, processes, and checklists, the veterinary profession can improve its efficiency, its profitability, and even the enjoyment of working in the profession.

The Magic of Customer Service in Veterinary Practice.

Disney sets the bar very high when it comes to customer service and employee engagement. There are many parallels that align with the ways in which we deliver client service in veterinary medicine. This article will share the quality standards that can be easily implemented into every day practice for veterinary professionals. Learning the customer psychographic will empower the veterinary team to exceed client expectations.

Building a Veterinary Practice Team.

Building a successful veterinary team is foundational and a driving force to having an all-around accomplished veterinary practice, one that provides quality customer service and medical care while being financially healthy and creating an environment for team members to thrive and be happy, highly productive employees. This article focuses on new and innovative approaches to cultivating a practice personality and culture that is employee centered. This article provides a road map to assist in implementing and achieving the next big steps needed to have an employee-focused business. Taking care of employees, unlike ever before, is desperately needed in veterinary practices.

Australian perspectives on artificial intelligence in veterinary practice.

While artificial intelligence (AI) and recent developments in deep learning (DL) have sparked interest in medical imaging, there has been little commentary on the impact of AI on the veterinarian and veterinary imaging technologists. This survey study aimed to understand the attitudes, applications, and concerns among veterinarians and radiography professionals in Australia regarding the rapidly emerging applications of AI. An anonymous online survey was circulated to the members of three Australian veterinary professional organizations. The survey invitations were shared via email and social media with the survey open for 5 months. Among the 84 respondents, there was a high level of acceptance of lower order tasks (e.g., patient registration, triage, and dispensing) and less acceptance of high order task automation (e.g., surgery and interpretation). There was a low priority perception for the role of AI in higher order tasks (e.g., diagnosis, interpretation, and decision making) and high priority for those applications that automate complex tasks (e.g., quantitation, segmentation, reconstruction) or improve image quality (e.g., dose/noise reduction and pseudo CT for attenuation correction). Medico-legal, ethical, diversity, and privacy issues posed moderate or high concern while there appeared to be no concern regarding AI being clinically useful and improving efficiency. Mild concerns included redundancy, training bias, transparency, and validity. Australian veterinarians and veterinary professionals recognize important applications of AI for assisting with repetitive tasks, performing less complex tasks, and enhancing the quality of outputs in medical imaging. There are concerns relating to ethical aspects of algorithm development and implementation.

Flow of information for bovine health surveillance: Two socio-economic models demonstrating the impact of the organisational profiles of local actors.

Passive surveillance is based on spontaneous reporting to veterinary authorities of disease suspicions by farmers and other stakeholders in animal production. Stakeholders are considered "actors" in sociology of organisations research. In veterinary public health, passive surveillance is considered to be the most effective method to detect disease outbreaks and to generate epidemiological information for decision-making on surveillance and control strategies. Nevertheless, under-reporting of cases is an inherent problem, reducing the ability of the system to rapidly detect infected animals. Previous studies have shown, for example, that passive surveillance for bovine brucellosis in France, through compulsory reporting of all bovine abortions, has limited sensitivity, with variability in reporting rates despite similar cattle farming profiles. Based on this observation and on sociological literature in health surveillance, we hypothesised that oversight organisational factors in different areas influence health actor contributions to passive surveillance. Therefore, to improve the efficiency of surveillance systems, we need to understand the organisational levers (supporting factors) and organisational drags (hindering factors) on the production and dissemination of health information. We conducted semi-structured interviews with the surveillance actors in two administrative geographic divisions in France (Departments A and B) with similar cattle farming profiles but contrasting abortion reporting rates (low and high, respectively). We assumed that these rates were related to health actor organisation in each administrative division. We mapped actor relationships and looked for behavioural recurrences and differences between the two departments. This analysis led to two socio-economic models explaining the configurations observed: pro-curative in Department A, and pro-preventive in Department B. These models showed a link between the level of competition endured by veterinarians on the sale of veterinary medicinal products and the overall contribution of the actors to health surveillance. The pro-preventive model had a higher contribution to surveillance than the pro-curative model. Importantly, the nature of the information produced in this configuration of actors corresponded to the needs of surveillance, providing collective and early information that circulated more readily between actors. We highlighted three characteristics that help to identify the configuration of a system of actors: 1) the pressure of competition exerted on veterinarian activities; 2) the dominant business model and form of organisation of veterinary clinics; and 3) the frequency of interactions between the main surveillance actors outside of crises. The first two characteristics affect the local contribution to data reporting for surveillance, and the third affects network responsiveness in a health crisis.

Effect of an integrated veterinary herd health program on fertility performance and incidence of reproductive disorders in five dairy herds.

The study was carried out in 5 dairy herds of Polish Holstein-Friesian cows. The average milk yield was about 9000 kg per year. For each herd, the following fertility parameters were calculated at the start of the program and 4 years later: first- service conception rate, services per conception, length of inter-calving period and culling rate due to infertility. The incidence of silent heat, ovarian cysts, ovarian afunction, retained placenta and clinical endometritis was also recorded. Four years after implementation of the program, the average first-service conception rate increased from 43.2% to 51.2%. In three herds the differences were statistically significant (p⟨0.05). There was also a decrease in the number of services per pregnancy and in the culling rate due to infertility. Fertility performance was maintained in two herds. The average incidence of silent heat decreased from 38.1% to 29.7% and the difference was statistically significant (p⟨0.05) in three herds. There was no significant reduction in incidence of other reproductive disorders during the 4 years except for clinical endometritis in one herd. The average milk yield increased from 9300 kg to 9530 kg milk per cow per year. In conclusion, the results indicate that the implementation of the integrated veterinary herd health program improved or maintained fertility performance despite an increase in milk yield.

What can practices do to improve access for neurodiverse clients?

This month, Debbie Martin discusses how a few simple adjustments to practice procedures can make veterinary care more accessible for neurodiverse clients.

Development and evaluation of a new method to combine clinical impression survey data with existing laboratory data for veterinary syndromic surveillance with the Canada West Swine Health Intelligence Network (CWSHIN).

The Canada West Swine Health Intelligence Network (CWSHIN) is a surveillance system imbedded in an intelligence network. It has been conducting syndromic surveillance in the four western provinces of Canada since 2012. The quarterly activities include repeated clinical impression surveys, compilation of laboratory data, discussion of trends with an expert group (practitioners, laboratory diagnosticians) and swine health reports for producers and swine practitioners. However, due to the lack of standardized population identifiers across data sources usual methods of combining data could not be applied and the collated data were not being fully utilized and analysed. Therefore in 2019, CWSHIN underwent a substantial review resulting in the "Next Generation CWSHIN". The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate a new data merging method to combine CWSHIN's clinical impression survey and laboratory data; and to provide examples of analyses and modeling based on these data. The data for analysis were restricted to repeated clinical impression surveys (2019-2020) from veterinary practitioners and laboratory diagnostic data (2016-2020). Merging surveillance data from existing sources can be challenging. Therefore, as an alternative to merge data using a hierarchy of population identifiers, we developed a Disease Map to link surveillance data from all our data-sources. The resulting Data Repository allowed monitoring of temporal trends of syndromes, clinical diseases, and laboratory identified organisms, but it cannot provide estimates of disease occurrence. Two main reasons were the lack of denominators and using existing data on routine diagnostic tests. Therefore, discussion in the expert group (veterinary practitioners, laboratory diagnosticians, swine health experts) was critical to the system's success. Based on repeated clinical impression surveys a stochastic scenario tree model for freedom from Foot and Mouth Disease (CWSHIN Blister model) was also developed. In conclusion, the method to link existing data systems from multiple divergent sources by means of a Disease Map improved CWSHIN's veterinary syndromic surveillance. Together the Data Repository and Disease map provided flexibility to monitor temporal trends, define populations and diseases, and allow analysis. However, it is critical that the surveillance is coupled with a good intelligence network that can help interpret the results and disseminate knowledge to veterinarians and producers.

Is veterinary work more than satisfying? A critical review of the literature.

Despite the rise of positive psychology in recent times, research continues to emphasise the risks and negative outcomes associated with veterinary work. Understanding these challenges and risks is imperative in helping those affected and preventing or limiting exposure for future veterinarians. However, it is vital that positive factors associated with their well-being are concomitantly addressed. Drawing on an organisational psychology perspective and associated theories, this review critically analyses the literature on veterinary well-being, job satisfaction and the role of positive emotions at work. This perspective prompts a call to researchers to investigate the positive aspects of veterinary work and offers many suggestions for future research and associated implications. Drawing on an extensive evidence base of research pertaining to positive emotions and well-being in veterinarians, the development, implementation and validation of workplace interventions should follow. The veterinary profession is a highly rewarding one and a focus on pleasure in veterinary work and ways to encourage this, will only help veterinarians flourish and help to promote the profession in the way it deserves.

'Culture change needed to fix OV shortage'.

Following criticism of how the supply of official veterinarians in England and Wales is managed, Josh Loeb talks to Charles Hartwell, CEO of OV provider Eville & Jones, about his view of the market and the company's business model.

Preparação experimental de silagem como recurso didático na disciplina de forragicultura no curso de medicina veterinária do Ifam, Amazonas, Brasil / Experimental preparation of silage as a didatic resource in the forage crop discipline in the veterinary medicine course at Ifam, Amazonas, Brazil / Preparación experimental de ensilaje como recurso didáctico en la asignatura de forraje cultura en el curso de medicina veterinária de Ifam, Amazonas, Brasil

A silagem pode ser utilizada na alimentação de ruminantes e equídeos, sendo uma alternativa viável em épocas de estiagem. Para a produção de silagem, é importante optar por plantas forrageiras que atendam às necessidades nutritivas dos animais e que possuam características favoráveis para a conservação e aproveitamento das mesmas. Com o objetivo de preparo de um produto ensilado de qualidade, e ressaltar o uso de experimentos práticos para fins didáticos, foi realizado um ensaio demonstrativo de preparação de silagem. Neste trabalho, também foram feitas comparações de cada fase fermentativa do processo de forma visual. A metodologia empregada nesse experimento se mostrou eficaz visto os resultados obtidos em relação ao produto fabricado e a facilidade na assimilação do conteúdo por parte dos discentes, ressaltando a importância da boa conduta na produção desse alimento.(AU)

Silage can be used to feed ruminants and equines and is a viable alternative in drought times. For silage production, it is important to choose forage plants that meet the animal nutritional needs and have favorable characteristics for their conservation and use. In order to practice and learn about the ensiling good practices, a silage preparation experiment was performed and documented in video, for didactic purposes, in the forage crop discipline. In this study, each fermentation phase of the process was visually compared. The methodology used in this experiment proved to be effective given the results obtained about the manufactured product and the ease assimilation of content by students, emphasizing the importance of good practices in this food production.(AU)

El ensilaje puede ser utilizado para alimentar a los rumiantes y a los equinos y es una alternativa viable en tiempos de sequía. Para la producción de ensilaje, es importante elegir plantas forrajeras que atiendan a las necesidades nutricionales de los animales y que tengan características favorables para su conservación y aprovechamiento. Con el objetivo de preparo de un producto ensilado de calidad, y resaltar el uso de experimentos prácticos para fines didácticos, se realizó un ensayo demostrativo de preparación de ensilaje. En este trabajo, las comparaciones de cada fase de fermentación del proceso también se hicieron de manera visual. La metodología empleada en ese experimento demostró ser eficaz, dados los resultados obtenidos en relación con el producto fabricado y la facilidad de asimilación del contenido por parte de los estudiantes, destacando la importancia de la buena conducta en la producción de ese alimento.(AU)

Association of Veterinary Hematology and Transfusion Medicine (AVHTM) Transfusion Reaction Small Animal Consensus Statement (TRACS). Part 1: Definitions and clinical signs.

OBJECTIVE: To use a systematic, evidence-based consensus process to develop definitions for transfusion reactions in dogs and cats. DESIGN: Evidence evaluation of the literature was carried out for identified transfusion reaction types in dogs and cats. Reaction definitions were generated based on synthesis of human and veterinary literature. Consensus on the definitions was achieved through Delphi-style surveys. Draft recommendations were made available through industry specialty listservs and comments were incorporated. RESULTS: Definitions with imputability criteria were developed for 14 types of transfusion reactions. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence review and consensus process resulted in definitions that can be used to facilitate future veterinary transfusion reaction research.