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The veterinary profession has an important role to play in not only the treatment, but also the prevention, of debilitating injuries and disease in animals. For example, the incidence of diabetes, obesity, and diabetic complications is on the rise in companion animals, including dogs, cats, and horses. Yet, exercise regimens indicated for their human owners and handlers who suffer from these same problems can help to prevent such disorders in pet animals. An increase in the number of cancer diagnoses and reduction in the quality of life has coincided with longer life expectancies secondary to improved health and husbandry care of pets. Reducing exposure to potential carcinogens in the environment and careful attention to behavior and subtle physical signs can help to prevent and reduce cancer incidence and enhance early detection in the growing numbers of elderly companion animals. Further, infectious, often zoonotic, diseases are newly appearing and re-emerging as urban and rural development encroaches on wildlife habitats.
Healthy Animals 2010 is AVMA's 5 year commitment to promoting and sustaining good health and long life in animals. Healthy Animals 2010 provides a framework for prevention of avoidable injuries and diseases in the nation's animal population. It is a statement of national animal health objectives designed to identify the most significant preventable threats to health and to establish national goals to reduce these threats. Healthy Animals 2010 enables the veterinary profession and interested persons and organizations in the public, private, and government sectors to work together towards a significant and sustainable increase in the quality of animal health and welfare within the broader context of public and environmental health.
Healthy Animals 2010 has established a set of principles for the Nation to pursue in its animal population over the first decade of the new century:
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1) Extend and enhance the availability and accessibility to veterinary health care and preventative medicine (e.g., immunizations, dentistry) from the Nation's urban to rural animal owners;
2) Encourage more widespread and extensive use of reproductive control strategies to reduce the numbers of unwanted, abandoned, and neglected animals;
3) Foster greater awareness and appreciation among the public for the value of animals in society, the human-animal bond, and public and environmental health and safety;
4) Enhance and improve the delivery of education on proper care and husbandry to the animal-owning public, and
5) Promote practical understanding and deeper knowledge of the value of veterinary research in enhancing and improving animal health.
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= AVMA/SAVMA Members Only
