American Veterinary Medical Association

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is an American not-for-profit association founded in 1863 that represents more than 105,000 veterinarians.

The AVMA provides information resources, continuing education opportunities, publications, and discounts on personal and professional products, programs, and services. The AVMA indicates that it lobbies for animal friendly legislation within a framework that supports the use of animals for human purposes (e.g., food, fiber, research, companionship).

The AVMA Council on Education is the designated accrediting body for schools of veterinary medicine in the United States.

The AVMA publishes the ''Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association'' (JAVMA) and the ''American Journal of Veterinary Research'' (AJVR).

The AVMA's veterinary student organization is the Student American Veterinary Medical Association (SAVMA).

History

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) was founded in 1863, when 40 delegates representing seven states met for a convention in New York. Originally named the United States Veterinary Medical Association, the USVMA was renamed the AVMA in 1889.

By 1913, the AVMA consisted of 1,650 members, with membership open only to graduates of accredited veterinary schools.

, the AVMA has more than 97,000 members. In addition to treating pets, veterinarians work in a number of fields, such as public health, agriculture, food safety, academics, and the military.

AVMA policy

The AVMA produces policies in response to member requests and stakeholder interest. These statements are general and aim to encourage improvement based on the best available scientific evidence.

In 2005, the AVMA changed its policy on pregnant sow housing, stating that "given the number of variables and large variation in performance within both group and stall systems for pregnant sows, no one system is clearly better than others under all conditions and according to all criteria of animal welfare". The AVMA's policy was adopted after a comprehensive review by a multi-disciplinary, multi-perspective task force of experts that produced an accompanying review of housing for pregnant sows.

The AVMA has voted on several proposals to take a formal stand against the forced feeding of birds to make foie gras. Although foie gras has been banned in many countries in Europe, as well as in the U.S. state of California, because of an absence of science specifically addressing the welfare aspects of foie gras production, as well as conflicting opinions among its membership, the AVMA opted not to take a stand either for or against foie gras. The AVMA has published a welfare implications of foie gras production backgrounder.

The AVMA has received pushback from many veterinarians for its classification of ventilation shutdown plus (VSD+) as "acceptable under constrained circumstances". Many veterinarians regard the method as cruel and have questioned the justification for the classification. In its guidelines, the AVMA relied only on one report from North Carolina State University and argued this gave evidence that VSD+ provided sufficiently limited suffering. However, this unpublished report's methodology has been questioned by organizations such as the Animal Welfare Institute for using an untested metric for stress (using heat shock protein 70), containing mathematical errors, having unclear writing, and more.

Legislation

AVMA supported the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act of 2014, a law that amended the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to clarify that veterinarians are not required to have separate registrations to dispense controlled substances outside of their principal place of business, such as when treating animals on a farm. AVMA argued that "the CSA must be amended so that our nation's animals do not suffer unnecessarily." Due to an interpretation of the law by the Drug Enforcement Administration, veterinarians were not allowed to travel to their off-site animal patients with controlled substances.

Academic Accreditation

The United States Department of Education has designated the AVMA Council on Education as the accrediting body for schools of veterinary medicine in the United States. In this capacity, the AVMA develops and maintains educational standards for these institutions to ensure the qualifications and competency of graduates of veterinary schools.

Two bodies within AVMA are responsible for veterinary education accreditation: the AVMA Council on Education (COE) and the Committee on Veterinary Technician Education and Activities (CVTEA). The former is responsible for accreditation of veterinary colleges and the latter veterinary technology programs.

AVMA-accredited Veterinary Colleges

, there are 53 AVMA-accredited veterinary colleges, with 30 being in the United States. The following colleges were accredited by the AVMA.

AVMA-accredited Veterinary Technology Programs

, the AVMA accredits veterinary technician programs in all but three U.S. states, one program in Canada, and a number of distance learning programs.

AVMA Provisionally Accredited Veterinary Colleges

As of 2025, there are four colleges provisionally accredited by the AVMA: Long Island University, Universidad Ana G. Mendez in Puerto Rico, Texas Tech University, and University of Arizona.

Specialists in veterinary medicine

According to the AVMA, a board-certified veterinary specialist is "a veterinarian who has completed additional training in a specific area of veterinary medicine and has passed an examination that evaluates their knowledge and skills in that specialty area."

, the AVMA recognizes 22 veterinary specialty organizations, including American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia, American College of Veterinary Surgeons, and American College of Zoological Medicine. The AVMA recognizes 41 distinct veterinary specialties, including anesthesia, behavior, dentistry, parasitology, pathology, pharmacology, and surgery.

References

External links

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Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association

American Journal of Veterinary Research

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1863 establishments in the United States
Health care-related professional associations based in the United States
Veterinary medicine-related professional associations
Veterinary medicine in the United States