Delivering Veterinary Doctors to Fiji and the Pacific Islands

In about 2 months, I will be two years at the helm of the College of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.  It is the smallest College of Fiji National University but probably one of the most complex.  In it are four major disciplines – Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry and Veterinary Science.  Most large universities would have each of these four as a separate college or faculty but it is just appropriate that they are managed as one unit in a small country like Fiji.

I am an agricultural scientist, specifically animal scientist by training, so I understand these four disciplines well enough to manage them.  The Veterinary Science programme was of major interest to me, even before I reported in Fiji.  My interest was not only based on my background in animal science.  Often people ask me what the differences are between animal science and veterinary science.  The two disciplines are cousins; animal science dealing with the breeding and overall management of animals while veterinary science tends to deal with preventing diseases through higher level medical intervention and treating animals when they are sick.  Animal science tries to ensure that animals receive enough care to remain healthy and remain in production.  Well-managed animals stay healthy and require less veterinary intervention but in the modern animal industries, animals produce at such high level that it is unlikely that they can stay completely healthy while in production.  Take an example – local chickens produce about 60 eggs per year but commercial hens produce more than 330 eggs per year.  This high level of production can impose some stress on the birds, as is the case with meat- and milk-producing animals.  Animal scientists have bred the commercial hens to produce at this high level and would ensure that they are housed in the right conditions and receive the right nutrition to attain optimum production.  However, commercial hens require about five vaccinations during their production cycle of about 80 weeks.  Sometimes, flocks suffer from disease outbreaks, including some diseases that are transferable to humans, in vet-speak, zoonotic.  Vets control such diseases, to ensure that they do not happen but if they do happen, especially under poor management, they are quickly controlled, to safeguard our food supply and human health.

A Veterinary Science programme is expensive.  There are no two ways about it.  It is as expensive as human medicine.  A lot of facilities and human resources are required to deliver a veterinary science programme but they do not need to be provided in one go.  Like all academic programmes, it is adequate to start with the most important requirements and build over the years.  Veterinary science secures human food supply but also ensures that there are fewer people being hospitalised from animal food-borne diseases.  I studied and have continued to work with Vets all of my career life, so I understand how courageous the Government and people of Fiji were to have set up a Veterinary Science programme.  It is the first one in the whole of the South Pacific islands, including Papua New Guinea.  When I arrived, a few people expressed their concerns that the programme was too premature and too hastily put together.  I have continued to assure all that it was probably the best way to start a Veterinary Science programme.  Fiji did the right thing.  Most Veterinary science programmes that I know started off small and then grew.  In fact, almost all discipline programmes start in that way but the expensive programmes are almost always like that.  I know of veterinary science programmes in Australia, which are more than 10 years old but still have less than 10 staff on their faculty.  The doyen of veterinary science in the British Commonwealth, the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College in Edinburgh started in 1823 but did not have its own building until 1833.  Today, it is probably number one in the whole world.  All of the British Commonwealth is proud of Royal Dick, and almost all Vets in practice in more than 55 countries of the world can trace their roots to Edinburgh.  At FNU, we are proud because many of our staff can trace their academic roots to Edinburgh.

We are growing and we will make Fiji and the Pacific proud.  We are not oblivious of the challenges that we have faced as a new programme.  We are 6 years old, preparing to present our first set of graduates.  We recognise our limitations and my team and I have focussed on redressing these limitations.  The Veterinary science programme is an arduous one.  How else could it be?  We are training doctors who will treat patients what do not talk and who can become aggressive to the doctor!  From observation to diagnosis to treatment, Vets face these challenges, not excluding their interactions with the owners of their clients – pet owners and farmers.  We recognise these challenges and will prepare our graduates to make Fiji and the Pacific proud.

So, in one cycle, are we happy with the outcomes?  It would be too optimistic for anyone to think that we would produce our first Vets to be as ready as those from Royal Dick or some of the older institutions run by our rich southern neighbours.  To me, the most important thing is that we know our limitations and can address them as we grow.  It is therefore not a surprise that we have since worked with the registrar of Veterinary Doctors in Fiji, who resides in the Ministry of Agriculture; the Fiji Veterinary Association and other stakeholders to develop a special internship programme for our first three sets of students.  We have hired more qualified staff and will work with Vets Beyond Borders and the Commonwealth Veterinary Association, to deliver this internship programme.  We are glad that some of our students have secured employment before they graduate and look forward to working with their employers when we commence the special internship programme.

In March this year, nine young men and women will be conferred with the degree of Bachelor of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry.  They will be the first Vets produced in the South Pacific islands.  They will then go through the special internship programme of at least one year, take a qualifying examination and then become registered Veterinary doctors.  The second and third cohorts will be put through the same process, by which time we believe that the programme would have stabilised and the Fiji Veterinary Surgeons’ Act would have been amended to recognise FNU as a provider of veterinary science education.  This is the first line of formal recognition, which all countries give to their providers.  Fiji National University will value such a recognition and we await the amendment to the Act, to open up channels to qualified veterinary academics to come in and strengthen the programme.  The current legislation is outdated, which has not kept pace with veterinary science developments around the world, especially other Commonwealth counties.  We intend to be a Pacific Centre, just like our sister human medicine programme.  This programme will save Fiji a lot of money, through reduction in the number of expatriate Vets and training of Fijian Vets overseas, the cost of the latter in Australia being currently more than F$300 000 per person.  Other island nations will train their manpower here, saving costs for themselves but generating income for Fiji.

I salute our first graduates and their families.  They have come from an original group of about 40 students, and represent less than 25 % of the number that started in 2014.  These figures alone tell a story of the academic rigour with which we delivered the programme.  You have made history.  You are the pioneer Vets of the South Pacific islands.  Many people would sacrifice anything to be in your positions.  Do your best to represent your families, FNU and Fiji.  Remain in touch with your alma mater.

Prof Paul A. Iji – Dean, College of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Fiji National University; Author of Writing and publishing your research (hard and Kindle editions) and A guide for young Africans growing up overseas. CreateSpace/Amazon. The views expressed here are those of the Author and do not reflect the views of his employers

Prof Paul Iji.