Pigeon post from the UK

The UK’s inflation rate seems to have peaked, from a high of over 11 per cent in October last year, it had eased back to just above 10 per cent by January this year. However, the economy is still far from recovery. The IMF predicts that the UK will be the only G7 economy to shrink during 2023; a predicament it shares with war and sanctions ravaged Russia. Widespread pay strikes by public sector workers have continued throughout the winter with transport and health services particularly badly impacted. The general economic malaise has naturally affected the veterinary profession too. A survey of 3000 veterinary employees in December 2022 by NSV Veterinary Recruitment found that 22 per cent of respondents had not received any pay rise during 2022. About a quarter of respondents had received a 6-10 per cent rise over the year, but even the most generous raises would have left employees worse off as inflation exceeded 10 per cent. The survey also found that full-time veterinarypay ranged from £39,299 –78,597 (A$ 69,500–139,000) depending on seniority and sector, veterinary nurse pay ranged from £23,227–35,091 (A$ 41,000 –62,000).

The financial squeeze on vets is corroborated by the veterinarysupport charity Vetlife which reported that requests for financial assistance had trebled in the last year Although a rule change last summer permitted vet nurses to seek monetary assistance for the first time, this alone could not account for the surge in need. Calls to the charity’shelpline (for all reasons) were up 3.3 per cent during 2022 to 3,503. There is currently no suggestion of strike action by employed veterinarians for improved pay, though the current strike culture has considerably raised the profile of labour withdrawal. The British Veterinary Union is a branch of the second largest UK union called Unite (with over 1.4 million members). It is heavily involved in the current National Health Service strikes.

Last year saw a fall in the number of students enrolling on veterinary undergraduate courses in the UK. The Veterinary Schools Council reported there was an overall fall of 10.9 per cent in enrollments in 2022 compared to the previous year. The biggest falls came at the universities of: Bristol (46 per cent), Liverpool (39 per cent) and Glasgow (16 per cent), though increases were recorded at Nottingham (31 per cent) and Edinburgh (15 per cent) universities. Some of this reduction could be due to current economic constraints and the return to examination-based entry after two years of grade assessments necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it does raise some concerns for a course that has enjoyed rising popularity in recent memory. Are the problems within the profession starting to filter through to the young people making their university application choices?

There’s happier news to report from the food animal sector. Antibiotic sales for use in production animals in the UK have fallen to a record low since recording began in 2014 despite the difficulties of COVID-19 and Brexit.

Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance and Sales Surveillance (VARSS) data from 2021 showed a 55 per cent fall in sales from 62.3mg/kg over seven years to 28.3mg/kg.

Continued cooperation between farmers and vets has put the UK ahead of most European Union nations. Increases in usage were only reported for turkey, game bird and fish production. Resistance testing results were also encouraging, of 4,507 Salmonella isolates challenged over 66 per cent were susceptible to all the antibiotics tested. E. coli resistance to the highest priority critically important antibiotics (HP-CIAs e.g. fluoroquinolones and later generation cephalosporins) was found to be generally low or absent.

On the subject of judicious prescribing the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has voted 20 to 3to update its guidance on the ‘under care’ question despite fierce opposition from many in the profession (see Pigeon Post Dec 2022). The new guidance, which (subject to possible reviews) is expected to come into force later this year. It states that the physical examination of an animal may not be necessary in every case for safe treatment. An examination will still be mandatory when a notifiable disease is suspected and in all but ‘exceptional circumstances’ when prescribing antimicrobials to individual or groups of non-agricultural animals. Proponents of the change see it as a natural progression bringing the advantages telemedicine into the mainstream. Opponents see it as an opportunity for remote prescribing companies to seize a sizeable chunk of veterinar y revenues and simultaneously jeop-ardize animal welfare standards. Either way it is clear that this could become a ‘watershed moment’ for the profession, one that could either widen its reach or accelerate a metamorphosis into averydifferent animal.

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