Veterinary medicine has the national responsibility to care for and protect animal health, public health, food systems, and environmental and ecosystem health. Its stewardship in these areas is challenged by new and re-emerging diseases that arise from characteristics particular to today's society: globalization of commerce, commercialization and consolidation of food supplies, increasing transportation efficiencies, greater encroachments at animal-human-environmental interfaces, and the threat of bioterrorism. Traditional approaches will require innovative strategies and measures to successfully and effectively address these diverse risks into the future.

The AVMA recognizes that the veterinary profession today must fulfill critical societal needs. Society now demands our forward-thinking profession take on an expanded scope capable of serving local and global populations of animals, people, and wildlife. Accomplishing this will require greater emphasis on elucidating the basic biology and mechanisms of disease, increasing diagnostic and therapeutic accuracy and precision, and implementing rationale disease prevention and avoidance strategies.

Therefore, the AVMA supports the following actions elucidated in several recent National Academies reports* that will enable veterinary medicine to achieve "Healthy Animals 2010"—a significant and sustainable increase in the quality of animal health and welfare within the broader context of public and environmental health:

1. Enhance the size and diversity of the national veterinary workforce, including practitioners, academicians, and educators, to ensure the availability and accessibility of veterinary services across all demographics;
2. Develop and cultivate sustained funding resources that will be dedicated to advancing health and welfare of companion animals, food animals, and wildlife;
3. Prepare and train more veterinarians for careers in biomedical research, public health, comparative medicine, food systems, and ecosystem health;
4. Encourage and support veterinarians and veterinary scientists engaged in biomedical and bioveterinary research activities, especially those in the area of comparative medicine, which is especially important in the translation of basic science knowledge into applied clinical information.
5. Enhance infrastructure and resources of veterinary schools, diagnostic laboratories, and related institutions to provide an environment conducive for learning, research, and clinical care.

Responding to specific opportunities that facilitate these actions will contribute to both human and animal health and welfare, promote scientific advances, and help the national economy and society as a whole.

*National Academies reports include:
i. National Research Council. 2005. Critical Needs for Research in Veterinary Science. Washington, DC. The National Academy Press.
ii. National Research Council. 2005. Animal Health at the Crossroads: Preventing, Detecting, and Diagnosing Animal Diseases. Washington, DC. The National Academy Press.
iii. National Research Council. 2004. National Need and Priorities for Veterinarians in Biomedical Research. Washington, DC. The National Academy Press.
iv. National Research Council. 2002. The Emergence of Zoonotic Diseases: Understanding the Impact on Animal and Human Health-Workshop Summary. Washington, DC. The National Academy Press.