Background The Board provides for licensure, certification and regulation of veterinarians and veterinary technicians. This includes prescribing various forms, the application process and setting deadlines for receipt of materials. Currently, the Board licenses approximately 1,400 veterinary doctors. The Board is responsible for establishing minimum standards for veterinary practice and ensuring public access to nonconfidential information about licensed veterinarians and certified veterinary technicians. The Board consists of nine members appointed by the Governor.
Members serve five year terms and are limited to two full terms.
Five of the members must be licensed veterinarians with established state practices or who are employed by a state university or political subdivision. Four members must be lay persons, three of whom represent the general public and one who represents the livestock industry. Allows the Board to enter into a consent agreement with a veterinarian in response to or prior to an informal interview and take prescribed disciplinary actions, including restriction of practice or rehabilitation of a veterinary doctor. Eliminates as a violation, the appendage of a veterinary title by a person to his or her name when the person is not licensed to practice veterinary medicine by the Board, previously a class one misdemeanor. Allows the Board to take disciplinary action against a veterinarian who fails to maintain a current premise license for veterinary services provided at a fixed location.