About the Faculty

The VH faculty is young, having been established as recently as 2004, although its antecedents date back to 1775, when Peter Hernqvist, a protégé of Linnaeus, started the first veterinary school in Sweden.

The faculty's mission is to conduct high-quality academic research and teaching in the field of veterinary medicine and animal science. This sets high standards in terms of long-term development and maintenance of skills, as well as the ability to swiftly and expertly address either new issues arising to meet the needs of the community or issues born of the innovative ideas of research scientists. Results and solutions should be disseminated to the community for the benefit of society, particularly via our former and present students. These are the challenges we face.

We are engaged in most aspects of the life and welfare of domestic animals. This applies to farm livestock as well as companion animals and those used for sport and leisure. Man plays several roles here: as an owner of horses, dogs and many other pets, and as an owner of livestock such as cows, sheep, pigs and fowl. Man is also a consumer of animal food products, entitled to expect healthy and uncontaminated food.

Our faculty is virtually unique in the world, being home to both animal science and veterinary medicine. There are close links between the education and research conducted at the faculty, since our education programmes are underpinned by our research. National and international evaluations alike have highlighted this particular element as one of several key factors in the quality and success of the VH faculty.

The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science is amply prepared to pursue and develop its role in society in the field of research and education, nationally and internationally. This said we also recognise the need to continually examine and revitalise our activities. This process involves new animal management research facilities at Lövsta – the Uppsala Livestock Research Centre – and the creation of a centre for our researchers and students on the Ultuna campus in Uppsala – the Uppsala Veterinary and Animal Science Centre. Therein lie our prospects for the future.

Education

Per student SLU has more teachers with a PhD degree than any other university in Sweden. The education programmes offered by the VH faculty are popular; several of them are among those with the highest number of applicants per place in the country.

Our teachers are themselves engaged in highly successful research in challenging and important fields. The faculty's thousand or so students thereby become intimately acquainted with vital current social issues, and are given ample opportunity to delve into the areas in which they are most interested.

Our education programmes offer a fruitful combination of theoretical knowledge and practical skills with the result that our graduates have very good employment prospects indeed.

VH faculty education programmes

Uppsala

• Animal science – degree of master in Agricultural Science, 4.5 years
• Degree of bachelor in Animal Science, 3 years; master's degree + 2 years
• Degree of master in Veterinary Medicine, 5.5 years

Skara

• Degree of bachelor in Veterinary Nursing, 3 years
• Ethology and animal welfare – degree of bachelor in Biology, 3 years

Flyinge, Strömsholm, Wången

• Degree of bachelor in Equine Studies, 3 years

Research

SLU is one of the world's foremost research institutions in the field of animal science and veterinary medicine. Infectious diseases can have an enormous impact on animal production and public health throughout the world. Research on animal welfare, the dispersal of contaminants in the environment and their effects on reproduction are other examples, while automation and technological development are taking place with a view to easing the workload in animal production and improving animal welfare.

Whether it is a question of livestock, horses or pets, animal management, animal welfare or animal health, our researchers are working for the benefit of both healthy as well as sick animals, and are engaged in the most pressing ethical issues. How should hen cages, flooring for cattle or pig accomodation be designed to best meet the needs of the animals? Should cows and calves actually be kept together in a single automatic milking unit?

The links between animal health and human health have recently come to the fore in various ways. Can animals also be used in the care of people – the old and the sick? Diseases that we share with animals are one of the key areas currently being given priority. Production of safe, healthy foodstuffs is another aspect of the relationship between animal health and human health.

Together with their supervisors, the 200 or so postgraduate research students at the VH faculty are keen to find solutions to the problems of today – and to prepare for those of tomorrow. This is how it should always be in a vibrant university environment.

Challenges

The VH faculty's areas of responsibility are undergoing dramatic change. The effects of developments in agriculture and animal management can be seen both in the landscape and in employment statistics. The number of farms with livestock continues to decline, whereas herd sizes continue to grow. The number of people working in the agricultural sector is falling, but ever higher levels of skill and expertise are required of those working in the food manufacturing industry.

Livestock represents an important link in the food chain, whether kept for dairy, egg or meat production. Long-term actions taken to establish sound breeding practices and good animal management ensure the availability of high quality food products from healthy animals. Other major challenges lie in identifying and eliminating risks along the journey from field to table. Our research examines the impact of animal production on climate and the environment, and also energy-efficient animal production.

Horses, dogs, cats and several other kinds of animal play an important part in many people's lives. The horse has a changed role – and appearance – and Sweden has become the EU country with the most horses per capita. Nine hundred thousand dogs and almost double that number of cats brighten up the daily lives of many people.

Society has high expectations of all forms of animal management. Concern for the wellbeing of animals and awareness of their situation and needs must be paramount.

The VH faculty faces a number of challenges in each of these areas of responsibility – for the good of animals and man.

Opportunities

The faculty’s departments, five in Uppsala and one in Skara, share responsibility with the University Veterinary Hospital for ensuring that almost one thousand undergraduate students and 200 postgraduate students in the field of animal science and veterinary medicine are given the best possible opportunities to receive high quality academic education.

Current research is as intensive as ever. Our approach is interdisciplinary, involving issues of both a fundamental and an applied nature. This combination means that we can communicate our findings to the community and the users of our research more quickly.

The current experimental animal housing facilities of the faculty, which were built in the 1970s, is now being replaced with new buildings at Lövsta – the Uppsala Livestock Research Centre – featuring modern technology and conditions better suited to addressing the issues of tomorrow, such as sustainable, climate-friendly, energy-efficient animal management and animal production.

The Uppsala Veterinary and Animal Science Centre is being built on the Ultuna campus. This will be home to the Uppsala departments of the faculty, with facilities for research and teaching, as well as housing for animals of various kinds and the adjacent University Veterinary Hospital.

The education programmes offered by the faculty are highly attractive. New bachelor and master's programmes are currently being established. The degrees of master in Animal Science, master in Veterinary Medicine and bachelor programmes in Veterinary Nursing and Equine Studies are undergoing thorough revision and revitalisation.

Research and third-level education programmes have benefited from a closer working relationship between researchers at new, more cohesive, departments. In addition, fields covered have been expanded to include environmental and climate issues, as well as broader perspectives, such as veterinary public health, the relationship between animal and human health, animal welfare and animal care, and the food chain as a whole. The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science has its finger on the pulse of many of the key issues that society faces.

Only once before have veterinary medicine and animal science in Sweden undergone such an intensive and vital phase of development – fourty years ago when the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences was founded …