The One Welfare: Animal Welfare Residency Program has officially been approved by American College of Animal Welfare (ACAW) for a 3-year residency training program. This new program was developed by Dr. Mark Flint in the Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine in collaboration with faculty across the college, university and veterinary industry.
The goal is to train veterinarians in One Welfare, which looks at issues from a wider, national, global and holistic perspective, focusing on the inter-relationships between animal welfare, human wellbeing and the environment. The concept refers to not only animal welfare but includes human welfare and societal mental health, as well as environmental conservation.
The One Welfare Residency is designed to be a sister program to the established Zoo and Wildlife Conservation Medicine and Ecosystem Health Residency, with these two programs becoming key training mechanisms for veterinarians wishing to become specialists in the fields of welfare and zoo medicine/conservation. These programs will be housed with the newly-formed One Welfare and Sustainability Center.
Graduates of the Program will be board eligible with the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Veterinary Board of Veterinary Specialties (VBVS) after the completion of a 3-year didactic and experiential individually tailored program that includes a Research Masters degree (MS) from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Ohio State University.
The program’s success will be in part due to its close collaborators within Ohio, including Procter and Gamble, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, The Wilds, Nationwide Children’s Hospital as well as wider support from the Atlantic Veterinary College and The Marine Mammal Center.
