Moldova's agriculture ministry to propose amendment of law on sanitary, veterinary activity

Chisinau, 4 March /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova’s veterinary service hardly copes with the requirements, as there are big problems dealing with the lack of specialists and providing the sector with qualified staff. This is the conclusion reached at a meeting, recently held with the participation of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Minister Nicolae Ciubuc and representatives of the Republican Association of Veterinary Physicians of Moldova and the ones of the National Food Safety Agency (ANSA).    

”Each year, about 40-45 veterinary physicians graduate from the veterinary Medicine Faculty of the Agrarian University; yet, unfortunately, only 10-15 per cent of the graduates get employed in the medical veterinary service. For this reason, we face an obvious lack of veterinary physicians. In particular, this situation is difficult in rural regions, where presently a free practice veterinary physician serves animals from 7-12 villages. At the same time, it is worth mentioning that young specialists do not have allowances like the teachers and physicians sent to rural settlements and the tariffs for the providing of veterinary  medical assistance have not been revised since 2009. The average age of the veterinary physicians from Moldova is of 55 years,” the head of the Republican Association of Veterinary Physicians, Nicolae Starciuc, said.   

In the context, to improve the situation in the veterinary medical service, the Association’s members demanded the revision of the tariffs for the services provided, undertaking measures stimulating graduates, as well as employment of veterinary physicians of free practice within the National Food Safety Agency.

For his part, Nicolae Ciubuc said that “the ministry will work out and promote the amendment and completion of the law on the sanitary and veterinary activity, in which all requests will be encompassed, including the compensation of expenses for the hiring the dwelling, earmarking of a one-off allowance for people professing in the sector.”