The Implementation Plan for  the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza recommends that  organizations plan for a 40 percent absenteeism rate at the height of a  pandemic. The Federal Government Lacks a Comprehensive Understanding of the Sufficiency of Its Veterinarian Workforce

Four of the five key agencies that employ veterinarians—APHIS, FSIS,  ARS, and Army—regularly assess the sufficiency of their veterinarian  workforces for routine program activities, and all four identified existing  or potential shortages. FDA does not perform such assessments. Finally, there is no governmentwide assessment of  the veterinarian workforce. Departments Have Done Little to Assess the Sufficiency of Their Veterinarian Workforces across Their Component Agencies

Even though their component agencies identified concerns about their  veterinarian workforces, officials from both USDA and HHS told us that  they have not undertaken a departmentwide assessment of these  workforces to gain a broader perspective on trends and shared issues. In  contrast, DOD has a process for such an assessment. These current challenges are likely to worsen because a large number of  federal veterinarians are eligible to retire in the near future. Efforts to Identify the Veterinarian Workforce Needed during a Pandemic and Large-Scale Animal Disease Outbreak Are Insufficient

Four of the five key agencies we reviewed—APHIS, FSIS, ARS, and FDA— have plans intended to detail how essential functions and services,  including those that veterinarians perform, would continue during a  pandemic that has the potential to severely reduce the workforce. However, the  plans lack crucial details, such as how the laboratories will continue  operations if absenteeism reaches 40 percent. For example, it does not  identify which essential functions—whether they be the responsibility of  the veterinarian or others—must be performed on-site and which can be  performed remotely. According to the project leader, as well as  USDA and DHS officials, control and eradication strategies would be  greatly complicated if wildlife became infected and could require more  veterinarians and different expertise. Federal and State Agencies Are Missing Important Opportunities to Ensure Efficient Use of Veterinarians During Disease Outbreaks

During four recent zoonotic disease outbreaks, the veterinarian workforce  challenge cited most often by federal and state officials was having too  few veterinarians to control the outbreak while also adequately carrying  out other routine activities. Federal and state agency officials reported several consequences of this  insufficient veterinarian capacity. First, 10 of the 17 agencies  have not assessed how well their own veterinarian workforces responded  to individual outbreaks. To help ensure the federal veterinarian workforce is sufficient to meet the  critical responsibilities it carries out on a routine basis, we recommend  that  1.  the Secretary of Agriculture direct FSIS to periodically assess whether  its level of inspection resources dedicated to food safety and humane  slaughter activities is sufficient, and  2.  the Secretary of Agriculture conduct a departmentwide assessment of  USDA’s veterinarian workforce—based, for example, on workforce  assessments by its component agencies—to identify current and future  workforce needs (including training and employee development) and  departmentwide solutions to problems shared by its agencies. 3. DHS recommended that the federal government enhance efforts to identify  the veterinarian workforce needed during catastrophic events. The number of veterinarians listed for the Department of Health and Human Services does not  include those United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps veterinarians working at the  FSIS and the Environmental Protection Agency because they are counted as employees of those  agencies. Within these three departments, we further  focused our review on five component agencies—the Animal and Plant  Health Inspection Service (APHIS), FSIS, Army, and the Food and Drug  Administration (FDA)—to determine the extent to which they assessed  the sufficiency of their veterinarian workforce. To determine the extent to which federal and state agencies encountered  veterinarian workforce challenges during four recent zoonotic outbreaks,  we conducted semistructured interviews with 17 federal and state  agencies involved in these outbreaks. 3. As  our report notes, the United States has used this “stamping out”  method in the past for eradicating smaller outbreaks of foreign animal  diseases.
Why GAO Did This Study

Veterinarians are essential for controlling zoonotic diseases--which spread between animals and humans--such as avian influenza. Most federal veterinarians work in the Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Defense (DOD), and Health and Human Services (HHS). However, there is a growing national shortage of veterinarians. GAO determined the extent to which (1) the federal government has assessed the sufficiency of its veterinarian workforce for routine activities, (2) the federal government has identified the veterinarian workforce needed during a catastrophic event, and (3) federal and state agencies encountered veterinarian workforce challenges during four recent zoonotic outbreaks. GAO surveyed 24 federal entities about their veterinarian workforce; analyzed agency workforce, pandemic, and other plans; and interviewed federal and state officials that responded to four recent zoonotic outbreaks.

What GAO Found

The federal government lacks a comprehensive understanding of the sufficiency of its veterinarian workforce. More specifically, four of five component agencies GAO reviewed have assessed the sufficiency of their veterinarian workforce to perform routine activities and have identified current or future concerns. This includes USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS), Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and Agricultural Research Service (ARS); and DOD's Army. Current and future shortages, as well as noncompetitive salaries, were among the concerns identified by these agencies. HHS's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not perform such assessments and did not identify any concerns. In addition, at the department level, USDA and HHS have not assessed their veterinarian workforces across their component agencies, but DOD has a process for doing so. Moreover, there is no governmentwide effort to search for shared solutions, even though 16 of the 24 federal entities that employ veterinarians raised concerns about the sufficiency of this workforce. Further exacerbating these concerns is the number of veterinarians eligible to retire in the near future. GAO's analysis revealed that 27 percent of the veterinarians at APHIS, FSIS, ARS, Army, and FDA will be eligible to retire within 3 years. Efforts to identify the veterinarian workforce needed for a catastrophic event are insufficient. Specifically, agencies' plans lack important elements necessary for continuing essential veterinarian functions during a pandemic, such as identifying which functions must be performed on-site and how they will be carried out if absenteeism reaches 40 percent--the rate predicted at the height of the pandemic and used for planning purposes. In addition, one federal effort to prepare for the intentional introduction of a foreign animal disease is based on the unrealistic assumption that all affected animals will be slaughtered, as the United States has done for smaller outbreaks, making the resulting veterinarian workforce estimates irrelevant. A second effort lacks crucial data, including data on how the disease would spread in wildlife. If wildlife became infected, as they have in the past, response would be greatly complicated and could require more veterinarians and different expertise. Officials from federal and state agencies involved in four recent zoonotic disease outbreaks commonly cited insufficient veterinarian capacity as a workforce challenge. However, 10 of the 17 agencies that GAO interviewed have not assessed their own veterinarian workforce's response to individual outbreaks and are thus missing opportunities to improve future responses. Moreover, none of the entities GAO reviewed has looked across outbreaks to identify common workforce challenges and possible solutions.