The job profile

The job profile

Knowledge heals - veterinary practice

Working in a practice is the best-known veterinary profession - with various career options. In small animal and equine medicine, the treatment and health care of various animal species and the counselling of pet owners are the central activities. Specialists are increasingly in demand - for special areas such as behaviour therapy, surgery, geriatrics, cardiology, dermatology or oncology as well as for special animal groups. Farm animal practitioners ensure healthy and productive livestock. Their focus is not on the individual animal, but always on the entire herd. Since only healthy animals provide healthy food, livestock practitioners make an important contribution to our daily, safe nutrition. The farm animal practitioner is an expert in animal health, animal welfare and food safety. The goal of the veterinary practitioner must be to minimise the use of medicines and to obtain safe food from healthy livestock.

Curiosity encouraged - research

Researching veterinarians work on very different questions in universities and research institutions. How does a certain disease develop? How does a medicine work? How does a herd stay healthy? How does a certain husbandry system affect the well-being of an animal? In all areas, state-of-the-art techniques are used, which are constantly being further developed. The tasks of research veterinarians are to design and carry out research projects, to publish their results and to maintain national and international networks. At universities, there is also the training of students.

Committed to welfare - public veterinary services

In public veterinary services, veterinarians ensure that eggs, milk or meat, i.e. food that comes from animals, are monitored all the way from the stable to the kitchen table at home. Thus, the animals are under observation from the moment they are born, and the feeding and treatment of the animals is also subject to strict guidelines, which are monitored by veterinarians. Animal welfare is an important pillar here, because only properly kept animals are healthy and provide healthy food. In the Public Veterinary Service, veterinarians assume a welfare function for all of us. In addition to food control or the monitoring of feed, their tasks also include, for example, the prevention and control of animal diseases, the monitoring of the import and export of animals or the control of zoonoses, i.e. diseases that are transmitted between humans and animals. Invisible to us, they make sure that we and our animals are well every day.

Recognising needs - free enterprise

Animal owners, farmers or practising veterinarians need a variety of products every day to care for their animals. Veterinarians working in the free economy develop, improve, market and distribute these products, such as medicines or pet food. About 5.5 percent of veterinarians work in the private sector, most of them in the pharmaceutical industry. Due to the breadth of veterinary training, they can take on jobs in various industrial sectors. The example of the pharmaceutical industry shows that veterinarians are or can be involved in all steps: from research and development to the distribution of medicines. In the industry, veterinarians are offered varied professional opportunities - often in an international environment.