Accreditation Team to Visit

By Stacey Curry Gunn

An accreditation team will visit OVC Feb. 2 to 6 to assess how well the college measures up to international standards for veterinary medical schools. The accreditation process is conducted by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) in partnership with the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CMVA).

The on-site visit by a team of Americans and Canadians is a requirement for all veterinary colleges from both countries at least once every seven years - or more often if deficiencies are identified. Increasingly, veterinary colleges around the world are undergoing AVMA/CVMA accreditation to ensure they meet the same standards.

OVC dean Alan Meek says it's important that the college maintain its current designation of full accreditation "because it confirms that our graduates are well trained in the fundamental principles, scientific knowledge and skills of veterinary medicine, and that we meet the other essentials that are evaluated. Full accreditation verifies our ability to meet international standards for veterinary medicine, which is vital to assure Canadians and international consumers that our animal-care, inspection and food-safety practices are of the highest quality."

Veterinary colleges and veterinarians are an integral part of Canada's infrastructure for public health protection, including regulatory agencies, food safety, wildlife and environmental health, and medical research, says Meek.

Veterinary practitioners and researchers play a key role in disease surveillance and outbreak response - the front-line defence against threats such as mosquito-borne West Nile virus, mad cow disease, E. coli outbreaks and other diseases transmitted through the food chain.

They also promote the quality and safety of food through proactive means, such as by animal health programs that decrease the use of antibiotics. And they advance human health through comparative medical research. Understanding animal diseases helps researchers better understand and treat human diseases.

Further to meeting important human and environmental health commitments, the CVMA notes that accreditation of Canada's veterinary colleges "provides a trade advantage to livestock and livestock-product exporters, since international trading partners are increasingly basing their health risk assessments on the competency of the national veterinary service . . . (which) is directly linked to the accreditation status of the veterinary colleges." Canada's food-animal industry has an estimated annual value of $38 billion, including $8 billion in exports.

Full accreditation also enables OVC graduates to readily obtain their licences to practice veterinary medicine, says Meek, and it greatly enhances the college's ability to recruit students, gain recognition for its graduates, recruit and retain faculty and maintain the quality of its research programs.

The accreditation team coming to OVC in February will evaluate the college's organization, finances, physical facilities and equipment, clinical resources, library and learning resources, students, admission, faculty, curriculum, continuing education and research programs. Full accreditation means OVC's program meets or exceeds all 11 of these standards, which are established by the U.S. Council on Education.

A college that is unable to meet one or more standards is placed on limited-accreditation status until it remedies its shortcomings. Failure to do so results in the termination of accreditation status.

Of Canada's three other colleges of veterinary medicine, the Atlantic Veterinary College is fully accredited; the University of Saskatchewan's Western College of Veterinary Medicine is fully accredited but for a restricted period of time because of infrastructure and other concerns, and the Faculté de médecine vétérinaire at St. Hyacinthe in Quebec is on limited accreditation.

Meek says the deans of all four of Canada's veterinary colleges have been meeting with federal officials for a number of months to secure "much-needed reinvestment" in their facilities and they hoped to hear some promising news in the Dec. 10 federal budget. He notes, for example, that no Canadian veterinary college has "Level 3" biocontainment facilities, which is "a great concern given the new and emerging diseases such as West Nile virus and chronic wasting disease."

The U of G/Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs contract, which includes OVC's Veterinary Clinical Education Program (VCEP) funding, is also under review. The VCEP funding is vital to OVC's ability to provide its students with essential clinical education and to serve the animal-owning public of Ontario, says Meek.

"Our VCEP funding remains critical to delivering a high-quality veterinary clinical education, which is so important to protecting and advancing public, animal and environmental health and to helping ensure that the college continues to meet international standards."