Veterinary Services include establishments which provide veterinary diagnostic testing and laboratory services. These services are a highly professional specialized service.
The Veterinary Services industry is forecast to grow at an annualized rate of $XX.X billion over the next outlook period. The industry includes establishments which are licensed veterinarian practitioners, animal health establishments, diagnostic testing laboratories, animal health laboratory services, and medical supplies for animals.
Veterinary medicine has made a number of important contributions to the health of animals. They include development of safe and effective vaccines for many companion animal diseases, such as feline distemper and brucellosis. They have also developed organ transplants for animals.
Although veterinarians treat a wide variety of animals, a large proportion of clinical-practice veterinarians are primarily involved in the treatment of companion animals, horses, and other large domestic animals. A small proportion of clinical-practice veterinarians specialize in the care of food-producing animals.
Government responsibility for animal health includes eradicating dangerous animal diseases, training veterinary personnel at all levels, certifying the effectiveness of drugs, monitoring general animal health conditions, and certifying quality standards for animal products. These functions are often performed by government veterinarians.
There is a need for legislation regulating private enterprise in veterinary services. Some functions of veterinary control may be delegated to gazetted private veterinarians under contract.
Although there are many important tasks that can be easily measurable, most of the output of the tasks is not visible. It is therefore essential to develop a system of monitoring and evaluation to assess the impact of public service activities on beneficiaries.