Web page maps food-animal DVM shortage

Schaumburg, Ill. — The American Veterinary Medical Association unveiled a Web page designed to illustrate nationwide needs for food-animal practitioners.

The page, titled "Solving a critical shortage in food-supply veterinary medicine," is designed to show how the shortage of veterinarians in this area puts the nation at risk. Data maps for each state illustrate the ratio of food animals per veterinarian, the population of food animals and the population of veterinarians. Click on a state and the numbers drill down by county, color-coding sections to correlate with animal and DVM populations.

AVMA officials say they created the maps by analyzing member records and United States Department of Agriculture information.

"Around the turn of the 19th century, virtually every veterinarian was a food-supply veterinarian. Today, only about 17 percent of veterinarians work in food supply, which includes private and public practice veterinarians involved in the entire food chain from farm to fork," the Web page text explains.

The site offers statistics to combat the shortage. View the Web page at www.avma.org/fsm.