Malaysia is facing a critical shortage of veterinarians. The Department of Veterinary Services recently revealed that the country has just over 2,500 active veterinarians, which falls far short of what’s needed to meet growing demand from livestock farms, research labs, and a booming pet care industry. This shortfall is more than just a numbers problem: it’s a question of national readiness in public health, food safety, and animal welfare. So what will it take to train, retain, and recognise a veterinary workforce, who play such a critical role in our food and health systems? On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Datuk Dr Quaza Nizamuddin Hassan Nizam, Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at Taylor’s University, former Director-General of the Department of Veterinary Services (2017-2020) and also the former President of Federation of Asian Veterinary Associations.
00:00Welcome back to Consider This, I'm Melissa Idris. Let's continue our discussion about the shortage
00:16of vets in the country. With only around 2,500 active veterinarians nationwide and growing
00:25demand across all sectors, experts are warning that the current capacity is unsustainable.
00:32Joining me now is Datuk Dr. Kwasar Nizamuddin Hassan Nizam, adjunct professor at the Faculty
00:39of Health and Medical Sciences at Taylor's University. Datuk Kwasar was also the Director
00:43General of the Department of Veterinary Services from 2017 to 2020 and he's also the former
00:50President of the Federation of Asian Veterinary Associations. Datuk Kwasar, thank you so much
00:57for being on the show with me today. Could we begin our conversation maybe by having you
01:03lay out for us the role, the vital role that vets play. I'm just wondering whether the public,
01:09myself included, truly understands the role that vets play beyond ensuring the well-being
01:17of our companion animals but also the role they play in ensuring food safety and zoonotic
01:24disease prevention.
01:26Yeah, thanks Melissa for having me in this program. I think the vets play a very important
01:34role and they contribute in animal health and towards human well-being as well as environmental
01:40sustainability and if you take an example of a disease which is like highly pathogenic
01:47avian influenza which is a zoonotic disease. It normally threatens birds, mammals and humans
01:55too and can cause debt, financial losses as well as disrupt food supply and cause price increases.
02:01That's one element of how disease from a poultry can move to the humans. Rabies is another disease
02:11that is of public health concern and affecting animals and humans which is still prevalent in Sarawak.
02:18Another pressing challenge is the antimicrobial resistance. The misuse of antimicrobials in both
02:24human and animal health sectors can lead to drug-resistant infections making treatment less effective.
02:31So, rigorous monitoring is required across food chains from farms, slaughterhouses to possessing centres
02:39and it's crucial to maintain safe residue-free food products.
02:45And not forgetting, Malaysia is a growing population with more affluence as well. The demand for animal protein
02:55is on the rise, particularly from the beef and dairy sector. And so veterinarians both in the public and private sector
03:04play a crucial role in improving breathing, feeding and husbandry practices to boost productivity and increase production.
03:12And one important area which is in the forefront now is animal welfare which remains a highly emotive issue for people.
03:24And veterinarians are expected to be touch bearers of responsible animal care.
03:29So all this underscores the importance of delivering high quality veterinary services with far-reaching impact across different sectors.
03:39Can I ask you, Dato, given the vital role that vets play in terms of public health and food safety,
03:48are our veterinarians sufficiently recognised and empowered to act as public health frontliners essentially?
03:58Yeah, that's an important issue which we need to address in terms of the number of veterinarians in the services,
04:09whether it's in the public or the private sector. There's a big disparity in terms of the demand and supply.
04:17That actually affects the veterinary services. However, the awareness among people are still lacking in terms of the importance of vets
04:26and how they contribute positively towards animals, to humans, to the environment itself.
04:34So even the public sector, for example, the level of recognition of veterinarians is not as on par with other professionals in the public sector.
04:50So this is one of the issues which needs to be resolved if you want to attract more talent, more veterinarians to the public sector.
04:59Because there is this huge vacancy in the government sector because it's not attractive to join the public sector.
05:09Because the positioning of the rate of employment is much lower than other professionals like the doctors, engineers and so on.
05:23So the government has to really look into how we can further improve and attract talents to serve the public sector.
05:32Because the public sector plays a crucial role in various aspects of animal health, food production and so on.
05:42So we heard from Dr Goh earlier that there is a real imbalance in terms of the veterinary workforce being in small animal practice or companion animal practice versus food animal practice.
05:57And of course, livestock heavy states will need more vets than pet clinics in KL.
06:03Can I ask you what needs to be done for the system to be built to encourage this correction in imbalance?
06:12So what is of importance is if you look at the livestock sector which you have mentioned just now, you have the industry which is very commercial like the poultry and the swine industry which is very commercial.
06:30And there are a lot of private practitioners, veterinarians servicing this industry.
06:37And of course, there is also a shortage of veterinarians coming into the industry.
06:42But the bigger deficit in terms of gaps in terms of veterinarians are in the sector of the dairy industry, the ruminant industry which is still under the purview of the Department of Veterinary Services.
06:59Because the commercialization of the sector is still in its infancy.
07:04Beef sector is still, the self-sufficiency rate is low.
07:09The dairy industry now is flourishing.
07:12But the talent required is not there.
07:16People are not joining the public sector because the pool factor from the private sector which offers better remuneration is the biggest concern for us,
07:27for the veterinarians to join the public sector.
07:31In fact, I had an opportunity once to speak to 120 final year veterinarians about how the government serves or whether the kind of job the public sector veterinarian needs to handle.
07:51And after my briefing or presentation, I asked among 120 final year graduates, how many of you are interested to join the public sector?
08:05There is only one person who raised his hand.
08:08And this is a real problem we are facing.
08:12So the government seriously need to look at how we can better position public sector veterinarians in terms of perks and in terms of salary and so on.
08:23If not, we are not going to attract veterinarians into the public sector.
08:28And when the public sector is, positions are not filled, then the veterinary services is affected.
08:36At the district level where the farmers require the services of veterinarians, where the industry requires the services of veterinarians for accreditation purposes, for farm accreditation, for processing centers to be accredited.
08:53All this will delay and slow down the services provided by the government.
09:00So I think it's important and timely that the government look at this problem and address this properly.
09:09Well, given your experience, Dato, what would you recommend the government do?
09:13What strategies, what policies or policy changes do you think are needed to not just boost the number of veterinarians or veterinary graduates who are staying in the public sector,
09:27but also increasing the number of academics to build that capacity?
09:32We've heard from Dr Goh that there are so few academics and they're not able to increase capacity building in this sector.
09:41What would you like to see in terms of strategies?
09:44Yeah, this is the demand and supply issue about producing enough sufficient veterinarians.
09:50We can say there's quite enough sufficient but if there's no universities that have been approved for the purpose of producing veterinarians,
09:59then they'll create, will create a demand for academic issues.
10:04Then we have to prepare undergraduates to go through this education process to become a lecturer and so on.
10:11So, at the moment, I think there's at least about two or three private universities who have applied to introduce a doctor of veterinary medicine program.
10:26And the Medicine and Veterinary Council and the government should look at this positively and approve these applications
10:34so that they can then take the responsibility to produce vet and with no cost to the government instead of the government itself trying to introduce new faculties.
10:49And because it's a costly program and let the private sector, let it be private sector driven,
10:55but the whole process has to be facilitated by the government, the Ministry of Higher Education, the Medicine Veterinary Council, the Department of Veterinary Services,
11:06so that private universities can undertake, facilitate these private universities to undertake this responsibility to introduce the doctor of veterinary medicine program
11:17so that we can produce more veterinarians.
11:19Dato, is there an issue of standardization or regulation if that were to be the case?
11:27Of course, there are standards which the universities have to adhere to,
11:33and those standards are available and recognized also used in other countries and so on.
11:40So, the important part is how can we facilitate, can we introduce education in such a way that the private sector can do it effectively?
11:55It did not follow the format of a government university because private universities are profit driven, they need to derive profit.
12:06So, the way they offer this program should not be, should not mirror exactly as the government universities because government funding is there available for the faculties to use,
12:25and it's an expensive program.
12:27But the universities have to optimize, the parents have to optimize, and this is where we need to look at how are they providing the functional part of the education,
12:37and whether that fulfills the standard.
12:39If that can be done, then go ahead and work with the private universities to ensure the standards are in place, and offer the programs.
12:48So, that's what, that's what could happen moving forward.
12:52And that will help solve a lot of our problems in getting enough veterinarians.
12:57Right.
12:58That was Datuk Dr. Kwazan Nizamuddin Hassan Nizam, the adjunct professor at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at Taylor's University, wrapping up this episode of Consider This.
13:08I'm Melissa Idris, signing off for the evening. Thank you so much for watching. Good night.
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