I had a recent opportunity to prepare a report on the global veterinary workforce. Some very interesting statistics attracted my attention. In 2015, the USA reported to World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE) a total of 87009 veterinarians, out of which 75593 (86.9%) are private veterinarians. In contrast, during the same year, India reported 70767 veterinarians, of which only 3116 (4.4%) were private veterinarians. In the above comparison, I have not considered private veterinarians in the US pharmaceutical industry as India is yet to report veterinarians in the private pharmaceutical industry. While presenting the above comparative statistics, I have considered veterinarians in academics and training institutions which are 6800 and 2181 for USA and India, respectively, as public veterinarians.

As per the Federation of Veterinarians in Europe (FVE) Survey of Veterinary Profession in Europe-2015, there are 243 000 veterinarians in Europe.  A clear majority (60%) of t