Changing faces of veterinary medicine - Shortage of food animal veterinarians

Veterinary medicine, previously a male-dominated profession, has experienced a significant increase in the number of women applying for veterinary colleges. Today approximately 85% of veterinary students are female. Parallel to this development there has been a decline in the number of graduates entering food supply veterinary medicine careers. More and more food animal veterinarians, foremost in rural areas, are complaining about their problems to recruit young professionals for their practice. Feminization as well as the shortage of food animal veterinarians is an international phenomenon. In veterinary practice and scientific literature it has been discussed if these two trends are related. Extensive research has been conducted about this subject, mainly in Australia, Canada and the USA. In this article the existing data have been compared and discussed.