The importance of professional skills teaching and assessment within veterinary education has recently been highlighted in the veterinary education literature. This academic discourse follows the acknowledgement by both veterinary employers and graduates themselves that new graduates often lack the professional skills and attitudes needed for success in clinical veterinary practice. Traditionally, veterinary curricula have focused solely on teaching content knowledge and clinical skills; however, veterinary education curricula clearly must also contain dedicated instruction in veterinary professionalism. This must include instruction in communication skills, emotional intelligence, cultural awareness, teamwork abilities, dispute resolution strategies and the awareness that multiple approaches may be required to resolve challenges. It has become unrealistic to expect students to rely on observation and role modelling to foster the development of professionalism. There is a need to incorporate explicit learning activities that reinforce the knowledge, attitudes, values, and behaviours that characterise veterinary professionalism. While role modelling remains a key aspect of the veterinary professionalism learning that takes place through the informal/hidden curriculum, many students have often had more experiences with negative role models than with positive ones. This can lead to the development of a tolerance or normalisation of negative behaviours and a decline in students’ perceptions of professionalism. This article aims to continue recent conversations on professional skills teaching within veterinary education, define what is meant by veterinary professionalism and consider the plethora of terminology used when trying to establish a definition, highlight those attributes of veterinary professionalism deemed important by veterinary stakeholders for career success and employability, and explore the challenges of incorporating the teaching and assessment of professional traits into veterinary education.

Veterinary professionals need to maintain currency with the rapidly expanding knowledge, techniques, and diagnostic skills available to the profession, while also accommodating the developing needs and expectations of clients and other veterinary stakeholders. Today, societal influence and expectations impose a heavy demand on veterinary practitioners, making it essential for tertiary veterinary education to equip veterinary graduates with the skills necessary to face these challenges and flourish in their profession. This paper explores four challenges faced by veterinary education in the development, maintenance, and upkeep of professional skills training: the divarication between employer expectations and veterinary education, the impact of demographic changes on the profession, the influence of institutional structures on the teaching of professionalism, and the risks associated with outdated models of professionalism training. The teaching of professionalism in veterinary education must continually evolve. One issue that may hinder this process is a divergence between the expectations of employers and tertiary institutions regarding the employability skills required by veterinary graduates. Veterinary professionalism education must also consider changing demographics within the profession and within society to provide all new graduates with the skills and tools necessary to succeed in the workplace, establish a sustainable work–life balance, combat burnout in new graduates, and be equipped to serve the general public. Failure to do this could result in professionalism teaching becoming complicit in a socialization process that perpetuates gender and cultural inequalities. This paper outlines some of the changes that have occurred in the veterinary profession and their implications on veterinary professionalism education. The article champions the necessity for veterinary professionalism education to evolve in concert with the constant changes in the profession.

Students enrolled in veterinary degrees often come from an urban background with little previous experience in handling horses and other large animals. Many veterinary degree programmes place importance on the teaching of appropriate equine handling skills, yet within the literature it is commonly reported that time allocated for practical classes often suffers due to time constraint pressure from other elements of the curriculum. The effect of this pressure on animal handling teaching time is reflected in the self-reported low level of animal handling competency, particularly equine, in students with limited prior experience with horses. This is a concern as a naive student is potentially at higher risk of injury to themselves when interacting with horses. Additionally, a naive student with limited understanding of equine behaviour may, through inconsistent or improper handling, increase the anxiety and compromise the welfare of these horses. There is a lack of literature investigating the welfare of horses in university teaching facilities, appropriate handling procedures, and student safety. This article focuses on the importance for students to be able to interpret equine behaviour and the potential consequences of poor handling skills to equine and student welfare. Lastly, the authors suggest a conceptual model to optimise equine welfare, and subsequently student safety, during practical equine handling classes.

A convenience sample of sheep and cattle herds around the cities of Harare, Kwekwe and Bulawayo, located in the Highveld region of Zimbabwe, was used to estimate the seroprevalence and sero-incidence of bluetongue virus (BTV) and epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV) antibodies. A competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to identify serum antibodies against BTV and EHDV across three rainy seasons. The median sero-prevalence of BTV and EHDV antibodies in cattle was 62% (interquartile range [IQR]: 30–89) and 56% (IQR: 5–77), respectively. In sheep, the median sero-prevalence of BTV and EHDV was 41% (IQR: 19–63) and 0% (IQR: 0–21), respectively. Median sero-incidences of BTV and EHDV antibodies in cattle of 43% (IQR: 22–67) and 27% (IQR: 9–57) respectively were recorded. The median sero-incidence of BTV in sheep was 14% (IQR: 6–23). Based on these preliminary findings, animal health workers in Zimbabwe should continue to monitor the exposure rates of cattle and sheep to BTV and consider the possibility of strains emerging with increased pathogenicity. There are no previous published reports of antibodies against EHDV in Zimbabwe so the possibility of epizootic haemorrhagic disease existing in domestic livestock should now be considered by Zimbabwean animal health officials. Seroconversions to BTV and EHDV occurred predominantly at the end of each rainy season (March and April), which generally corresponds to high numbers of the Culicoides vectors. BTV isolations were made from three individual cows in two of the sentinel herds and all three were identified as serotype 3. This is the first time BTV serotype 3 has been recorded in Zimbabwe, although its presence in neighbouring South Africa is well documented.

Research shows that working equids in low and middle-income countries play an essential role in supporting the livelihoods of their owners. The objective of the study was to provide the first description of the welfare status of working horses in Fiji by analysing animal-based parameters alongside owner knowledge and perceptions of horse management. Trained assessors used a structured interview to question 279 horse owners on their knowledge and management practices, while their horses (n = 672) were assessed on health and welfare parameters. Horse owners supporting five or more dependent family members had horses with an increased prevalence of wounds than those with less dependents. The presence of wounds was associated with draught work and “carrying people or goods on back” while hoof neglect was associated with draught and breeding/other work. A lower body condition score was found in horses with neglected hooves and the presence of hoof neglect and wounds was associated with a negative general attitude in these horses. However, this study also found indicators of good welfare in these horses. These findings suggest that intervention, in the form of targeted veterinary services alongside training programs for owners, is required in order to improve the welfare of working horses in Fiji.

Sentinel herds and samples submitted by private equine practitioners were used to determine the sero-prevalence and sero-incidence of African horse sickness virus (AHSV) and equine encephalosis virus (EEV) in horse and donkey populations in the Highveld region of Zimbabwe. The sero-prevalence and sero-incidence of antibodies against these viruses were determined using the competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of serum antibodies. In donkeys, the median sero-prevalence of AHSV antibodies, across the three rainy seasons under study, was 75% (inter quartile range [IQR] 67–83), with a seasonal median sero-incidence of 45% (IQR 40–63). In horses, the median sero-prevalence of EEV antibodies was 63% (IQR 21–73), with a median seasonal sero-incidence of 10.5% (IQR 10–14), while in donkeys the median sero-prevalence of EEV antibodies was 80% (IQR 67–90), with a median seasonal sero-incidence of 50% (IQR 40–60). This study highlighted the significant levels of exposure of donkeys to AHSV and horses and donkeys to EEV in Zimbabwe despite equine encephalosis remaining unreported by Zimbabwean veterinarians to date. Most seroconversions in sentinel herd animals to AHSV and EEV occurred towards the end of the rainy season in March, April and May corresponding to the time of the year when the Culicoides vectors are in high abundance. In order to determine the clinical significance of these infections, blood and spleen samples, submitted by private equine veterinary practitioners over a 5-year period, from horses showing characteristic clinical signs of African horse sickness were tested for the presence of viral antigen using the antigen capture ELISA. The median sero-prevalence of AHSV antigen in horses recorded from these samples was 38% (IQR 33–88). The predominant AHSV antigen from these samples was serotype 7 (33%) followed by serotype 2 (26%) and serotypes 4 and 8 (16% each). African horse sickness virus serotypes 3 and 9, identified in this study, had not been previously reported in Zimbabwe.