SERVIÇO PÚBLICO FEDERAL
UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO PARÁ
INSTITUTO DE LETRAS E COMUNICAÇÃO - ILC
FACULDADE DE LETRAS ESTRANGEIRAS MODERNAS - FALEM
PROFICIÊNCIA EM LEITURA EM LÍNGUAS ESTRANGEIRAS - PROFILE
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E-mail: [email protected]
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EXAME DE PROFICIÊNCIA EM LEITURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
Grande Área: Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias
The roles of veterinarians in meeting the challenges of health and welfare of livestock and global
food security
At the heart of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s efforts is achieving food security for
all; that is, to make sure people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy
lives. With this in mind, the organization’s mandate is to raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural
productivity, better the lives of rural populations, and contribute to the growth of the world economy.
A classical definition of a veterinarian is that of a person that is qualified to practice veterinary
medicine, and by this most people think of clinical practices related to the prevention, cure, or alleviation
of pain and treatment of injuries in animals, especially domestic animals. But the contemporary roles of
veterinarians go far beyond these more visible tasks. As the world becomes intricately interconnected
and more complex, so are the various obligations and responsibilities that veterinary professionals must
undertake. To give an example, veterinarians at FAO work to reduce hunger and poverty across the
globe through the development of animal production and health strategies that improve efficiency in
production parameters while upholding environmental and natural resource management principles.
Broadly speaking, veterinarians are involved in more than administering vaccines, cleaning
wounds, insert microchips in pets, and inspecting animal food products. Over the years, veterinary
professionals have played significant and contributory roles in animal and human health and welfare,
food quality, food safety, food security, ecology, ethology, epidemiology, physiology, psychology,
development of drugs and pharmaceuticals, biomedical research, as educators, trainers, and
policymakers, and in wildlife conservation, and the protection of the environment and biodiversity. As
challenges have arisen, veterinarians have found ways to adapt given that their knowledge and training
makes them multifunctional professionals. This aids societies and its animals to stay healthy and
productive. It is therefore not surprising that veterinary medicine is very popular among young people
deciding on a career.
As the world population grows and middleclass incomes rise, demand for livestock products
increase ― a consumption boom shaped by one decade of rapid economic growth and globalization. But
there are certain high impact diseases that do not allow animal husbandry to flourish. Less dramatic
diseases impact the performance of farm animals, leading to lower production and associated financial
losses due to mortality and morbidity. Additionally, poor animal health also negatively influences animal
welfare.
In this regard, the roles of farm-oriented veterinary professionals are to advise farmers and
owners of livestock production systems on the most appropriate herd health management practices
according to their specific agro-ecological contexts. This does not only include the treatment of animal
illnesses and the proper installment of preventive measures, such as biosecurity, de-worming, and
vaccination, but also housing, nutrition, cleaning, and disinfection of premises and environmental
sanitation. The correct undertaking of these last practices may reduce dependency on the usage of
veterinary medications and, therefore, reduce input and labor costs, which, in turn, positively influence
farm productivity and profit margins.
It would be wrong, however, to limit veterinarians’ work to advisory and hands-on livestock health
activities at farm level, as they are involved with other tasks throughout the value chain. For instance, in
countries where food safety is monitored and implemented, only healthy farm animals are allowed to be
delivered for pre-mortem inspections and further passage to slaughterhouses for meat production thus
ensuring safe and wholesome meat supply available for consumption by the public. Also, veterinarians
SERVIÇO PÚBLICO FEDERAL
UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO PARÁ
INSTITUTO DE LETRAS E COMUNICAÇÃO - ILC
FACULDADE DE LETRAS ESTRANGEIRAS MODERNAS - FALEM
PROFICIÊNCIA EM LEITURA EM LÍNGUAS ESTRANGEIRAS - PROFILE
Fone: (091) 3201-8779
E-mail: [email protected]
Site: http:// www.ufpa.br/profile
make sure that only healthy farm animals are exported, imported, and distributed, preventing the risk of
introducing detrimental, high-impact diseases into regions or countries.
As for global food security, institutional estimates indicate that a total of 925 million people were
undernourished in 2010, compared with 1.023 billion in 2009. Most of the decrease was in Asia, with 80
million fewer hungry, but progress was also made in sub-Saharan Africa, where 12 million fewer people
went hungry. However, the number of hungry people is higher in 2010 than before the food and
economic crises of 2008-2009. Improving food security requires going beyond short-term responses in
order to protect and promote people’s livelihoods over the longer term, with agriculture and the livestock
subsector playing pivotal roles.
It is now widely acknowledged that healthy and productive livestock make important contributions
to food production, income generation, job creation, economic growth, and poverty alleviation. Healthy
and productive livestock produces a wide variety of food products for direct and indirect human
consumption and processing. These products include blood, eggs, meat and meat products, milk and
dairy products, viscera as well as rendering by-products such as brains, ears, feet, skin, testicles,
tongues, and udders. The food and income from healthy animals empower farmers of all scales to
embrace the advantages, education, opportunities, and strengths they need to produce more food and
income to feed an ever-increasing world population. Also, animal food products from healthy and
productive livestock improve farmers’ access to both domestic and international markets.
It is for this very reason that the provision of veterinary services by national and regional agencies
is a key component of efforts supporting sustainable production of food from animal origins and to the
success of farm operations. The lack of proper animal health practices reduces farm efficiencies,
decreases food production levels, and impacts potential profits. In fact, studies have demonstrated that
there is a direct correlation between the quality of livestock production and the provision of veterinary
services. Because food animals support the livelihoods and nourishment of almost a billion people efforts
should be directed at upholding food security.
Other contributions to food security can be shown through the multidimensional benefits of
eradicating rinderpest from the face of the earth: an achievement of FAO and partners under the Global
Rinderpest Eradication Programme. Also, rural veterinarians play preponderant roles in the fight against
H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza ―a zoonosis affecting livelihoods of millions of people through
mortality and morbidity― since it surfaced in Southeast Asia in late 2003. Nowadays, veterinarians are
also active in addressing African swine fever, rabies, brucellosis, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia,
foot-and-mouth disease, haemorrhagicsepticaemia, peste des petits ruminants, Rift Valley fever, and
African trypanosomosis, among other diseases.
When zoonotic diseases strike any given geographical location, veterinary professionals are the
first source of informed opinion on veterinary issues for governments, veterinary surgeons, the media,
civil society organizations and charities, action and consumer groups, and the public. It has long been
recognized that analyzing, studying, and recording animal diseases resulting in epidemic events is of
tremendous benefit for generations to come. To this end, veterinary scientists, scholars, and professors
are the leading providers of veterinary news, research, and information, including clinical and scientific
developments to the wider veterinary community and other interested disciplines in science. Closely
aligned with information dissemination, the improvement of the welfare of all animals through veterinary
science, education, and debate among interested parties has resulted in highlighting and promoting
discussions on pertinent welfare issues which are taken forward by institutions and society. Here, too,
veterinarians play pivotal roles in these areas.
Veterinary professionals also share responsibilities for bio-security. This is a joint effort that must
be shared by all who have obligations for animals and/or animal products, both farm and companion
animals. The conventional barriers that nature provides can no longer be relied upon to exclude
pandemic dissemination from country to country. In this view, the veterinarian is a sentinel for the early
SERVIÇO PÚBLICO FEDERAL
UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO PARÁ
INSTITUTO DE LETRAS E COMUNICAÇÃO - ILC
FACULDADE DE LETRAS ESTRANGEIRAS MODERNAS - FALEM
PROFICIÊNCIA EM LEITURA EM LÍNGUAS ESTRANGEIRAS - PROFILE
Fone: (091) 3201-8779
E-mail: [email protected]
Site: http:// www.ufpa.br/profile
detection of, and early response to, accidental or intentional introduction of exotic diseases. The
veterinarian is, in fact, the first line of defense that society counts on against agroterrorism and
bioterrorism. In sum, veterinary professionals are key players on bio-defense, and thus for national
security and welfare.
To more emphatically highlight the multiple and very important roles that veterinarians have
played throughout history and will continue play in many decades to come, 2011 celebrates the 250th
anniversary of veterinary education and profession. In fact, throughout the year, national and
international veterinary institutions ―along with a number of agencies and intergovernmental
organizations― will be promoting the birth of the veterinary profession. They will raise public awareness
about the importance of the veterinary profession, while at the same time reminding opinion leaders and
policymakers everywhere in the world that veterinarians have been serving humankind for almost three
centuries.
FAO, 2012. Disponível em:
<http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/home/en/news_archive/2011_The_roles_of_veterinarians.html>
Leia o texto “The roles of veterinarians in meeting the challenges of health and welfare of
livestock and global food security” e responda as seguintes questões em português de acordo com o
mesmo:
1. De acordo com o texto, qual a definição clássica do veterinário e que papéis ele tem
desempenhado ao longo dos anos? (2 pts.)
2. Quais os papéis dos veterinários que trabalham em fazendas? (2 pts.)
3. Quais as melhorias que o gado produtivo e saudável gera para os agricultores? (2 pts.)
4. Segundo o texto, qual a correlação entre a qualidade da produção de gado e a prestação de
serviços veterinários e que conseqüências esta correlação traz? (2 pts.)
5. Em que sentido os profissionais veterinários compartilham responsabilidades com relação à
biossegurança? (2 pts.)