Although the practice of veterinary medicine has been ongoing for decades in Ghana, the public's spectacle about the scope of veterinary practice must be broadened. Veterinary medicine is a professional area that requires trained individuals for its practice. A veterinarian is a medical doctor that treats non-human animals.

It is unfair when the ordinary Ghanaian has little or no knowledge about the veterinary profession in the country. Can this be attributed to the dearth of veterinarians in Ghana? To the ordinary Ghanaian, veterinary medicine is about canines and a matter of perception limited to the injection of dogs.

Here is the illumination where the veterinary profession is not solely about the snuggling of pets. The practice of veterinary medicine is of a scope broader than that. Just like all the other fields of medicine, veterinary medicine constitutes medical and surgical practices as well as specialization in the field of practice.

In addition to pets, veterinary medicine covers the health and welfare of all animals together with public health. Domestic, wildlife and aquatic animals both large and small are under the care of a veterinarian. All birds, reptiles, mammals and other animals either domestic or in the wild are treated by veterinarians.Veterinarians are instrumental in animal production seeing to their welfare and health.

Similar to humans, animals also develop infectious, non-infectious and idiopathic diseases. Animals suffer diseases of viral, bacterial, fungal, protozoal and other microbial origins. Atopies and other allergies also occur in animals. A cat together with his owner develops asthma.Hormonal imbalance diseases in animals include diabetes, thyroid gland malfunction, reproductive failure and other abnormalities of the endocrine system. Leukaemia, tumours and other neoplastic diseases, as well as neurological diseases such as seizures and epilepsy, are common in animals.

The health of the public is also ensured by veterinarians. Veterinarians are the frontiers in the control of zoonotic diseases. Tuberculosis and rabies are examples of diseases communicable to both people and animal which veterinarians prevent by meat inspection and routine vaccination. A veterinarian plays key roles in scientific and health research. It will interest you to know that the notorious and ubiquitous Salmonella bacteria was discovered in 1885 by Theobald Smith with the help of Daniel Elmer Salmon, a Veterinary Pathologist.

Veterinarians advise on policy-making concerning emerging diseases of animal and public health importance. In 1897 Frederik Bang as a veterinarian discovered Brucella abortus, a bacterium that causes reproductive failure and abortion in cows and transmitted to humans via unpasteurized milk and other secretions from infected animals. Veterinarians also make contributions to academia and environmental conservation.