The only vet in the room

May 01, 2017

Back in February I attended my first pet food conference, the NZ Pet Food Manufacturers Association Conference in Auckland. A year ago I wouldn't have even known such a thing existed! 

The conference attendees were a mixture of ingredients suppliers, manufacturers, packaging companies and sales reps from various pet food companies. As my nutritionist, who had somewhat bent my arm to get me there, had said, it was an industry who's who. I met a bunch of interesting people who were incredible knowledgeable and passionate about their industry.

But here's the interesting thing, which many of them commented on, I was the only vet in the room. Given the important role that nutrition plays in the health and wellbeing of our pets and the amount of pet food that is retailed through veterinary clinics I guess it is odd that more veterinarians are not playing a more prominent role in pet nutrition companies. 

Hopefully we can change that in the future. Vets have an enormous bank of knowledge and experience when it comes to animal nutrition and an ability to look at things from an evidence based approach. As a profession that works at the intersection of people, animals and the environment we definitely have a larger role to play.  

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