SA vet shortage puts food safety at risk

Removing vets from critical skills list partly to blame for crisis

Nearly half the young vets in South Africa are leaving or considering emigrating, according to the MD of the South African Veterinary Association, Gert Steyn.

“We found that a massive number of posts were vacant, even in urban areas. The other shocking thing was the number of vets intending to emigrate in the short term,” said Steyn, referring to a survey the association conducted late last year.

Two-thirds of posts in rural areas were vacant a year after being advertised and 45% of posts in urban areas were vacant.

Intensifying shortages in the private and public sectors, vets were removed last February from South Africa’s “critical skills” list, which facilitates work visas for foreigners.

“People don’t always get the role of vets,” says Steyn. “They think about vets treating Sandton lapdogs and fancy racehorses, but every animal protein that lands on your plate has gone through a vet. They are the custodians of food safety.”

For example, up to eight vets would be involved in keeping the livestock healthy for the ingredients to make lasagne, including dairy (milk, butter), poultry (eggs) and meat (beef), says Steyn.

Vet shortages are higher in rural areas, where they are needed by farmers, and in certain specialities such as large animals.

Depleting South Africa’s vet numbers, high-income countries such as the UK are recruiting to fill their gaps, at higher salaries.

“Africa seems to have a shortage of vets, particularly well-skilled clinical vets,” said professor Dieter Holm, a deputy dean of the veterinary science faculty at Onderstepoort.

However, North Africa has an oversupply. Egypt has about 12 vet training schools.

Holm said the removal of vets from the critical skills list was a crisis for international students (about a tenth of the intake) who graduated at Onderstepoort last year.

They were prevented by the decision from doing their compulsory community service in South Africa this year despite being educated at taxpayers’ expense.

“This left them in limbo. Some already had community service positions and they could not be employed. The trend was to go overseas,” he said.

Many of these graduates came from neighbouring countries, including Lesotho and Eswatini, which do not have vet schools. For the safety of animals and humans, vets are needed for disease reporting systems, disease control across borders and to protect biosecurity.

Home Affairs spokesperson, Siya Qoza, said that critical skills removed in February were those “excluded by the scientific methodology of the [government’s] Labour Market Intelligence Research Programme and extensive consultations with various role players”.

“However, we are aware of the weaknesses you have mentioned,” he said on the vet shortages, adding they were engaged with the minister of agriculture, land reform and rural development about this.

Manfred Rohwer, former chair of the South African Equine Veterinary Association, works in a large equine practice with branches in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and overseas. “The large animal practices seem to be under more pressure than the small animal practices.”

Rohwer said, for example, a Durban equine hospital catering to a large concentration of racehorses had shrunk from five vets to one in a short period. Catering for after-hours emergencies and basic requirements of running an equine hospital under South African Veterinary Council regulations had become impossible.

Onderstepoort staff, the veterinary association and the veterinary council are engaging with the department of home affairs to have vets put back on the scarce skills list.

Stephan Mauch, owner of Penzance Vet in Cape Town, said the scarce skills decision affected his staffing. One of the vets could not reapply for a “scarce skills” visa when hers expired; she is back on a spousal visa.

“It has become much harder to get locums,” said Mauch, whose practice, like that of most private vets, no longer provides an after-hours service.

Tlotlo Kgasi, former president of the South African Veterinary Council, last year warned that the vet shortage needed urgent attention. “The international norm is between 200 and 400 veterinarians per million of a country’s population, while South Africa only has between 60 and 70 veterinarians per million people,” he stated then.

“As a result, veterinarians often find themselves stretched beyond capacity.”

South Africa has about 3,500 vets registered but “there are probably a whole lot less”, said Steyn, because vets practising outside the country, for example in Hong Kong, may remain registered with the South African Veterinary Council. “The government needs to assess the importance of veterinarians in terms of food safety and security and do all it can to retain vets.”

Every animal protein that lands on your plate has gone through a vet. They are the custodians of food safety

Gert Steyn, MD of the SA Veterinary Association