Essential veterinary education in food safety, food hygiene and biosecurity: a global perspective.

A big challenge for veterinary educators is to stimulate interest in public health medicine and make the curriculum interesting, and relevant, to veterinary students. Veterinary public health encompasses many areas, including zoonosis control, food safety, animal health and biosecurity, animals as sentinels of environmental hazards and the contribution of animal waste to pollution of food and water, so there is no shortage of ammunition for the veterinary educator in the competition for students' attention. Veterinary educators, not the students, will have failed if graduates complete their studies without being convinced of the importance and relevance of veterinary public health.