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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Chiang Lai-wan and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (May 7):
Question:
Regarding the supply of and demand for veterinary surgeons and the development of veterinary education in Hong Kong, will the Government inform this Council:
(1)0in each of the past five years, of the number of veterinary surgeons registered in Hong Kong under the Veterinary Surgeons Registration Ordinance (Cap. 529) and, among them, the number of those who were registered for the first time, together with a breakdown by the jurisdiction in which the institutions awarding the educational qualifications are situated;
(2)0of the general duties, staff establishment, number of vacancies and turnover rate of various ranks of Veterinary Officers employed by the Government in the past five years;
(3)0whether it has any plan to introduce measures to enhance the contributions of local veterinary surgeons in respect of safeguarding the public health system, supporting the development of local agriculture and fisheries, monitoring the health of local livestock, and strengthening researches on the relation between animal genes and viruses, etc; if it has, of the details and whether the relevant measures will raise the demand for veterinary surgeons; if not, the reasons for that;
(4)0notwithstanding the reply of the Food and Health Bureau to a question of a member of this Council on April 21, 2010 that "[s]ince the establishment of CFS [the Centre for Food Safety] in 2006, we have handled food safety issues well and effectively controlled the prevention of diseases in animals ... Further recruitment of additional Veterinary Officers is not required at this stage", there are views that given the sporadic outbreaks of avian influenza epidemic in recent years which have posed serious threats to the lives and health of the public and the temporary ban, recently imposed by the authorities in response to the avian influenza risk, on the importation of live poultry from the Mainland which have affected people's livelihood, whether the Government will consider afresh recruiting additional Veterinary Officers to reinforce food safety as well as its work on prevention, control and study of diseases in animals; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(5) how the authorities will follow up the recommendations put forward by the Veterinary School Task Force of the University Grants Committee in its report released last December, which proposed that a fit-for-purpose veterinary school (i.e. one with a small professional veterinary medicine training programme but a top-heavy research and postgraduate programme) should be established in Hong Kong as such a veterinary school is conducive to further strengthening Hong Kong's infectious disease control capacity and addressing the identified gaps in food safety, aquaculture and the shortage of specialised veterinary surgeons, and that the Government should provide policy and resource support in this regard; and
(6) as it has been reported that the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) will offer postgraduate degree programmes in Veterinary Medicine jointly with the Cornell University in the United States, whether the Government can provide policy and resource support to CityU in the short and long term, with a view to promoting local veterinary education and training and enhancing the research on and prevention of zoonotic diseases in Hong Kong, the Mainland and the neighbouring countries?
Reply:
President,
(1) In each of the past five years, the number of registered veterinary surgeons newly registered in Hong Kong under the Veterinary Surgeons Registration Ordinance (Cap. 529) and the total number of persons listed on the register of registered veterinary surgeons are set out in Annex 1.
By jurisdiction, the bodies which award the qualifications held by veterinary surgeons newly registered in Hong Kong over the past five years are shown in Annex 2.
(2) The Veterinary Officer (VO) grade is a professional grade, comprising VO rank at the entry level and the promotion ranks of Senior Veterinary Officer (SVO) and Principal Veterinary Officer (PVO). Grade members are posted to three departments, namely the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.
VOs are mainly responsible for investigation, diagnosis, prevention and control of animal and zoonotic diseases, monitoring and enhancement of animal welfare, inspection of animals and animal products for import and export, and licensing and enforcement of relevant legislation. SVOs are mainly responsible for providing professional services and advice on animal diseases, prevention of cruelty to animals, control of import of livestock, protection of wild birds and mammals, food safety and animal management in parks. The PVO serves to provide high-level steer and directorate input from both the management and veterinary angle, and is responsible for overseeing animal management/welfare and animal/public health measures, formulating improvement measures needed to cope with the potential threat of existing and emerging zoonotic and animal diseases for sustainable implementation, as well as overseeing the development and professional regulation of veterinary service in Hong Kong.
In the past five years, the staff establishment, number of vacancies and turnover rate of VO grade in the Government are set out in Annex 3.
(3) and (4) AFCD is committed to preventing and controlling the introduction and spreading of animal diseases, including animal diseases which may infect humans. Specifically, AFCD is closely involved in monitoring and controlling avian influenza and other zoonotic and animal diseases, developing and implementing farm hygiene and biosecurity protocols, evaluating the monitoring work on the use of veterinary drugs in food animals, providing recommendations on the use and registration of vaccines and veterinary drugs, developing strategies for diagnostic and surveillance testing for livestock and other animals, and ensuring that laboratory testing protocols and procedures meet international standards.
AFCD also provides quarantine services, inspects animals and plants imported into Hong Kong, inspects local food animal farms on a regular basis and monitors diseases in food animals. At present, there are about 1 008 marine fish culture farms, 43 pig farms and 30 chicken farms in Hong Kong. VOs in the Government and AFCD officers have been providing free technical advice and guidelines to stakeholders in the local agricultural and fisheries industries, including monitoring and testing of animal diseases, such as avian influenza, as well as advice and support on treatments.
AFCD reviews the effectiveness of its work and measures in these areas from time to time and makes adjustment as appropriate.
On prevention and controlling of infectious diseases and the relevant research work, the Public Health Laboratory Services Branch under the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health has been carrying out laboratory surveillance of novel infectious diseases (including zoonotic diseases) found in Hong Kong as part of its core duties. Since 2008, CHP has been engaging consultancy services to maintain surveillance of novel/emerging pathogens (including zoonotic diseases that are liable to have great impact on public health). In addition, the major research areas of the Research Fund for the Control of Infectious Diseases (RFCID) set up by the Food and Health Bureau (FHB) in 2003 also include the impact of emerging and zoonotic diseases on population health. These major research items have been retained after RFCID has merged with the Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF) since December 2011. For many years, the research fund of FHB has been providing financial support for various researches on the impact of zoonotic diseases. In 2012-13, HMRF offered a total of about $6.25 million to seven new research projects related to zoonotic diseases. The Government also provides financial support through different channels (for example, the University Grants Committee (UGC) and the Innovation and Technology Fund) for educational institutions to conduct researches related to zoonotic diseases and public health.
On safeguarding food safety, the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of FEHD has set up the Veterinary Public Health Section and the Slaughterhouse (Veterinary) Section, comprising a total of two SVOs and nine VOs. The Veterinary Public Health Section is responsible for the inspection of live food animals imported from the Mainland at the boundary control point, inspection of farms supplying food animals to Hong Kong, and providing professional advice in the areas of import requirements for food of animal origin and related food safety issues. The Slaughterhouse (Veterinary) Section is responsible for the surveillance of animal diseases in slaughterhouses, ante-mortem inspection and management of veterinary drug residues etc. In 2008 and 2009, CFS created four posts of VOs, tasked with inspecting Mainland farms supplying live food animals to Hong Kong from the Mainland, enhancing communication with Mainland animal health authorities in regard to reporting the disease situation of food animals supplied to Hong Kong, and the ante-mortem inspection of live food animals in slaughterhouses etc.. In addition, CFS created a VO post on contract basis in 2013 and is going to create an additional SVO post this year to provide enhanced risk assessment of food of animal origin. Currently, the veterinary manpower in CFS is adequate to handle food safety issues, prevent and control diseases in animals, and provide professional advice on food safety issues in relation to zoonotic diseases in food animals.
The Administration is keeping in view the vacancies and turnover of the VO grade in the Government. The Standing Commission on Civil Service Salaries and Conditions of Service (SCCS) conducted a Grade Structure Review for the VO grade in 2008. To follow up the recommendations of SCCS, AFCD conducted a grade review in 2009. In response to a recommendation of SCCS, AFCD created the rank of PVO and a PVO post in 2011-12. The post is tasked with overseeing the development of relevant polices to enhance government veterinary services as regards the surveillance and control of animal diseases and food safety. AFCD conducted recruitment exercises for the VO grade in 2009, 2010 and 2013. It encountered no major difficulties in recruiting VOs. The Administration will review from time to time the manpower situation of the VO grade having regard to work progress and demand in various areas, and where necessary, seek additional resources for recruiting more veterinary surgeons in accordance with the established mechanism.
Regarding the overall supply of veterinary surgeons in Hong Kong, the number of registered veterinary surgeons has grown from around 150 to around 720 since the enactment of the Veterinary Surgeons Registration Ordinance in 1997. According to our assessment, the number of veterinary surgeons and their service provided in Hong Kong in the coming few years should be sufficient to cope with the additional demand.
(5) and (6) Further to its first attempt in 2009, the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) submitted a proposal to UGC again in December 2012, proposing the establishment of a veterinary school to provide publicly-funded veterinary programmes. UGC set up a Task Force in March 2013, comprising local and overseas public health and veterinary science experts, as well as those who are familiar with the local higher education sector. The Task Force took an evidence-led investigation approach and met with stakeholders to collect information, examining every aspect of the second proposal submitted by CityU with an independent and professional perspective. The Task Force submitted a report to UGC in late 2013, making four recommendations.
In January 2014, UGC considered the Task Force's report and unanimously resolved to accept the first recommendation of the Task Force, namely that CityU's proposal had not provided a persuasive case for the establishment of a publicly-funded veterinary school in Hong Kong. The resolution of UGC was based on an analysis of factors such as societal needs, professional qualifications and career prospects of the graduates, programme arrangements and accreditation, research support, sustainability, budget estimates and funding support. UGC also considered that in the foreseeable future, unless there were material changes in circumstances in the veterinary sector as stated in the report, UGC would not find it necessary to examine any more proposal submitted by any institution seeking funding to provide a veterinary programme.
Recommendations 2 to 4 in the Task Force's report involved public health (such as strengthening infectious disease research and food safety support) and other challenges. Although these recommendations were not included in the resolution of UGC, UGC considered that these issues could be further discussed in the community.
The resolution of UGC and the Task Force's report were submitted to the Administration on January 13, 2014. In view of the social, policy and resources implications of the observations and Recommendations 2 to 4 mentioned in the Task Force's report, the Administration is carefully studying the details and justifications involved before deciding on the way forward.
For the proposed postgraduate programme in veterinary science to be offered by CityU, UGC pointed out that in reaching a view about such a major self-financing commitment, the senior management and council of a UGC-funded institution should have rigorously assessed the plan, satisfied themselves as to the underlying financial strength and undertaken a thorough risk analysis, and ensured that it would neither affect the provision of other UGC-funded programmes nor distract from the core mission and agreed role of the institution. There should be no presumption that UGC funding would be forthcoming to assist the institution in case any financial needs arise from such a venture.
Ends/Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Issued at HKT 18:45
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