Veterinary students' attitudes on One Health: implications for curriculum development at veterinary colleges

One Health knowledge has been identified by the North American Veterinary Medical Education Consortium (NAVMEC) as a core competency for all graduating veterinarians. Many veterinary colleges, however, are still in the preliminary stages of exploring how best to incorporate One Health principles into their existing curricula. In February 2012, we conducted a survey among second to fourth-year Professional Veterinary Medicine (PVM) students at the Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to assess One Health needs and attitudes. Out of 407 students, 93 (22.9%) completed the survey. Although 74.2% of respondents were very or somewhat familiar with the One Health Initiative, only 34.4% reported some level of involvement with One Health-related activities. Over 80% of respondents rated the One Health Initiative as very important for public health, wildlife health, and food-animal medicine or surgery; less than 30% rated the One Health Initiative as very important for equine medicine or surgery and small-animal medicine or surgery. The majority of respondents were very interested in educational activities involving inter-disciplinary interactions with both human and ecosystem health professionals. Our findings can help guide the development and implementation of One Health-focused curricula at veterinary colleges.