Only about half of the US and Canadian schools and colleges of veterinary medicine offer training in aquatic animal medicine. Aquaculture has traditionally been served by fisheries biologists employed by federal and state agencies. Although more than two hundred US veterinarians have been identified as having an interest in aquaculture, only a handful are engaged full-time in the field. Veterinarians serving aquaculture are usually involved in preventive medicine, water quality, production management, food safety and quality, and biosecurity. The US sheep population has declined from 56 million in the 1950s to 5.5 million today.
Imports account for a third of the sheep and lamb consumed in the United States.
Despite the sharp decline in population, lamb prices are presently high enough to make sheep production profitable, but the wool market has dropped sharply. Australia and New Zealand dominate the world's wool and lamb production. The survival of the US commercial sheep industry may depend on packers staying in business. According to a Food and Agriculture Organization report, sheep and goats represent only four percent of the meat consumed worldwide. In some regions of the United States, goat meat consumption is equal to that of mutton and lamb.