In November 2002, a meeting was held in Washington DC sponsored by the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC). The Executive Summary of this meeting included three major topics.

Nations of the world are facing significant and immediate biological and health threats for which the training of veterinarians makes them ideally suited to respond, but prompt and sustained action by the profession's leadership is required.

Biological threats include those of natural origin and those deliberately initiated. We are vulnerable in these areas, which can have serious health and economic repercussions.

Threats facing our country are of ever-increasing complexity, especially with respect to new, emerging, and re-emerging infectious diseases. These diseases provide a significant risk to animals, humans, and the nation's food supply. [For example, the USDA recently announced a national emergency surveillance program aimed at some diseases found in non-commercial poultry—namely, exotic Newcastle disease (END) and avian influenza (AI). Recent outbreaks of END in the western US involved the loss of countless pet birds and poultry, and cost $180 million, whereas AI outbreaks in the northeast and Texas meant immediate destruction of affected birds and closure of poultry exports.]

Zoonotic diseases account for the majority of recently emerging infectious disease episodes.

Considerable threats are also presented by the ever-growing emergence of drug-and multidrug-resistant pathogens.

The increasing biological threats facing us today are spurred on by our transition to a global society, with the globalization of agriculture and the food supply.

Global development with changes in human demographics, ecosystems, industrialization of food production, intercontinental distribution of the food supply, urbanization, pockets of global poverty, and inadequate nutrition in many parts of the world contribute to the problem. The spread of disease today is outpacing the provision of adequate and preventive health care.

World diseases of natural origin are increasing and our vulnerability is evident (e.g. BSE, foot-and-mouth disease, West Nile virus, monkey pox, Nipah virus, Hantavirus, SARS).

Bioterrorism and agro-terrorism pose very real and serious threats to the US. The anthrax outbreak in 2001 is one example, but the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK, had it resulted from terrorism, would have produced similar dire health and economic consequences to our country.

The veterinary profession must take the initiative and be at the center, countering this array of threats with prompt and intense involvement.

A unified set of priorities needs to be established to provide leadership and an important role for veterinarians as advisors on public policy.

Improved public outreach and education are needed to promote local, regional, and national activities and capabilities of our profession in these wide ranging fields of impact.

The veterinary profession must reach out to policymakers and the public in order to bridge the gap between human health and veterinary medicine, especially as applied to these new threats to biosecurity.

Academic veterinary medicine must take action now to recruit and admit a cadre of students that will meet these current needs and responsibilities of the profession. More professional careers need to be dedicated to public health, agricultural security, and to the prevention and control of new and emerging diseases and bioterrorism.

Educational and training initiatives need to be developed to respond to the threats posed here. This will require development of curricula that will better serve the needs of the students, and graduate and post-doctoral students entering non-practice, public service careers. More veterinary leaders and role models are needed to accomplish these goals.

A stronger research commitment is needed for each of the areas discussed above. To accomplish this task more collaborative, partnership, and interdisciplinary relationships need to be developed among veterinary colleges, across university systems in general, and with industry and the private sector.

A more substantial agricultural extension presence is needed to play a leadership role in food-born disease hazard analysis and critical control points for assessment and intervention. The veterinary profession also needs to play a leading role in dealing with environmental and ecosystem health.