Indonesia Needs Another 9,000 Vets

Indonesia still needs 9,000 vets more to meet the need for some 20 thousand vets until year 2020. “We still lack of 9,000 vets; every year less than one thousand vets are produced,” said the Dean of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of UGM, Prof. Dr. drh. Bambang Sumiarto, S.U., M.Sc., during the National Workshop of Veterinary Hospital Standardization, Wednesday (28/10), at the Faculty’s Auditorium.

Bambang Sumiarto mentioned about the big ratio of existing vets and the required number of vets. Many staff hold the positions that should be handled by vets. This has caused eradication efforts of infectious diseases not simultaneous and effective.

Bambang Sumiarto said that there are only five Faculties of Veterinary Medicine which produce in total less than 1000 vets every year. Besides UGM, the universities that have Faculty of Veterinary Medicine are IPB, Syiah Kuala University in Aceh, Airlangga University in Surabaya and Udayana University in Bali. Meanwhile, three other Faculties (Brawijaya University in Malang, University of Mataram in NTB, and Wijaya Kusuma University in Surabaya) have not produced vets.

He also explained the three main duties of vets: to eradicate infectious disease, develop animal husbandry, and develop veterinary public health.

At the workshop and professional vets’ education council meeting held from 28-30 October, the standardization of educational veterinary hospital was discussed. Bambang hoped that the standardization can help co-assistant students. Up to now, only three educational hospitals serve as a reference hospital for vet clinics,” he added.

In that occasion, the professor from IPB, Prof. Dr. drh. Dondin Sajuti, M.Sc., said that good cooperation between the Faculties and educational hospitals will always be improved. “The IPB’s hospital gives more support for professional vet program, apart from giving services to animals, pet owners and the environment,” he said.