With increasing impacts of diseases on aquaculture production in all countries, the need for a well-trained aquatic veterinary workforce (including veterinarians and para-veterinarians) has become a global imperative. Numerous educational efforts are underway ensure that sufficient personnel are available to support aquaculture industries, producers, governmental agencies and a myriad of supporting industries that provide services or products to prevent, control or eradicate diseases. Without this infrastructure, sustainable and economically viable aquaculture will simply not thrive or grow.
Several International and National veterinary organizations (WVA, CIVME, WOAH/OIE, NAVMEC, FVE) have developed processes to determine, evaluate, harmonize and accredit veterinary education and extracurricular continuing education and professional development (CEPD) programs throughout the world, to ensure an adequately trained veterinary workforce to meet contemporary and societal needs. However, two organizations are focusing on aquatic veterinary education needs: the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association (WAVMA), and the International Partnership on Aquatic Veterinary Education (i-PAVE).
The WAVMA has developed two Aquatic Veterinary Certification Programs to certify veterinarians (CertAqV) and para-veterinarians (CertAqVNT) who have Day-1 competency (equivalent to competencies required of individual receiving a veterinary or Nursing/Technician degree) to provide aquatic veterinary services has identified 9 preclinical or clinical core subject areas or domains: (Preclinical) 1. Anatomy and physiology of aquatic species/taxa; 2. Environmental factors affecting aquatic animal health; 3. Structure and function of aquaculture and ornamental (pet) industries; (Clinical) 4. Pathobiology and epidemiology of important aquatic animal diseases; 5. Clinical and laboratory diagnostics used for diagnosing aquatic animal diseases; 6. Availability and appropriate use of therapeutic and biologic agents in aquatic veterinary medicine; 7. Public health, zoonotic diseases and seafood safety issues important in aquatic veterinary medicine; 8. International and national legislation, regulations and policies affecting aquatic veterinary medicine; and, 9. Principles of welfare and humane treatment of aquatic animals. Approximately 300 veterinarians and 11 para-veterinarians have been certified, and 60-80 more are in the process of documenting their credentials.
To build on WAVMA’s CertAqV efforts, i-PAVE has embarked on a multi-year project to verify and validate the aquatic veterinary knowledge, skills and experience (KSEs) needed in any country, using a DACUM/SCID Process. The process involves workshops in N. and S. America, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific, to verify the KSEs needed, using veterinarians actively practicing aquatic veterinary medicine.
Interestingly, preliminary surveys suggested ~60% of N. American and EU veterinary schools included some aspects of aquatic veterinary medicine in at least one course, most emphasizing finfish, but no veterinary curriculum covered all WAVMA Day-1 subjects. Therefore, i-PAVE is in the process of distributing additional surveys of all veterinary schools in Africa and other global regions, to determine which of the core aquatic veterinary subjects are covered in their curricula or CEPD programs. Also in development is an i-PAVE program to have on-line and on-demand aquatic lectures and publications by subject-matter experts, available to any veterinarian or para-veterinarians wanting to obtain the KSEs necessary for them to provide services to aquatic animal owners and industries. The WAVMA CertAqV and CertAqVNT, and i-PAVE programs are or will be available to all African veterinarians and para-veterinarians in Africa or any other country.