Journal Article - Farm Sustainability: A Veterinary Perspective

VetSalus and Vet Sustain research piece published by InPractice journal, on behalf of the British Veterinary Association.

Our planet is facing a catastrophic environmental crisis caused by climate change (with greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture accounting for around 10 percent of the UK’s total emissions), biodiversity collapse, species extinctions, food inequality and resource scarcity. VetSalus Managing Director and Vet Sustain Treasurer David Black worked alongside Rachel Hayton (research lead at Synergy Farm Health), Rhys Hopkins (farm vet at Prostock Vets) and Alasdair Moffett (farm vet working in landscape recovery) to create an article exploring the contribution of vets to the challenges ahead. 

The team explored the contribution of agriculture to greenhouse gas emissions, changes to subsidy systems for farmers, the role of veterinarians in One Health, antimicrobial resistance and disease prevention. Given that an estimated 75 per cent of new and emerging animal diseases have the potential to be transmitted to people¹, the veterinary profession has a pivotal role to play in the control and monitoring of zoonotic diseases. Alongside this, there is evidence that climate change will continue to have a major impact on disease prevalence, therefore a continued effort to improve stewardship of veterinary medicines is required of vets and farmers. 

VetSalus believes that the role of veterinarians in supporting wholesome food sourced from healthy animals has never been more important. We thank Rachel Hayton, Alasdair Moffett and Rhys Hopkins for their input into this project. 

The article was published in InPractice Journal, copyright British Veterinary Association - you can find the paper in the BVA Journal Library.