[Developments in veterinary medicine and possible impact on veterinary practice and education]

What are the recent developments in the various fields of the veterinary profession and which adjustments in veterinary medicine are required for successful anticipation to these new conditions? Efforts are made to answer these questions from the point of view of each of the authors' professional disciplines. The authors all specialised in different fields of veterinary medicine. The present paper is a summary of each of the authors' editorial contributions on this subject as published in Fakulteitsnieuws (magazine of the Utrecht Faculty of Veterinary Medicine) in 1984 and 1985. Veterinary practice is found to be developing into two main directions: (i) veterinary medicine of pet animals which concentrates on the individual diseased animal and (ii) veterinary medicine of farm animals in which herd health control and preventive medicine are increasingly emphasized. In addition, industry has an increasing need for veterinarians having a specific veterinary pathobiological background. Optimum veterinary care requires veterinarians increasingly to concentrate on one of these (sub)disciplines. This implies that, in veterinary training, students should be afforded ample opportunity to achieve depth in the areas of personal interest. This is made possible by ensuring further differentiation in the veterinary curriculum and by setting up an intensive system of post-graduate education.