**GAO-09-424T**                      Published: Feb 26, 2009. Publicly Released: Feb 26, 2009.                  

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## Highlights

Veterinarians play an essential role in the defense against animal diseases, some of which can have serious repercussions for the health of animals, humans, and the economy. More than half of the federal veterinarians work in the Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS). However, there is a growing national shortage of veterinarians. This testimony focuses primarily on two key points as addressed in GAO's recently released report, Veterinarian Workforce: Actions Are Needed to Ensure Sufficient Capacity for Protecting Public and Animal Health (GAO-09-178, February 4, 2009). First, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has not conducted a governmentwide effort to address current and future shortages of federal veterinarians; and, second, USDA and HHS have not assessed the sufficiency of their veterinarian workforces departmentwide. For the report, GAO, among other things, surveyed 24 federal component agencies about their veterinarian workforces. GAO also determined the extent to which the departments that employ about 96 percent of federal veterinarians, including USDA and HHS, have assessed the sufficiency of their veterinarian workforce. In addition, GAO interviewed officials of OPM to identify any initiatives it has conducted to address the sufficiency of the federal veterinarian workforce.

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## Topics

Human Capital

Disease controlEmergency medical servicesEmergency preparednessEmergency response personnelEmployee incentivesEmployee relationsEmployee retentionFederal agenciesstate relationsHomeland securityHuman capital managementHuman capital planningInfectious diseasesLabor forceLabor shortagesNeeds assessmentPandemicPay ratesPersonnel managementPersonnel recruitingSkilled laborStaff utilizationStrategic planningVeterinary medicineZoonotic diseasesAnimal diseases