Chief Veterinary Officer for Canada

The Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO) of Canada leads efforts to ensure that Canada's animal health community and veterinary infrastructure have the capacity and competency to effectively respond to foreign, emerging and future animal and zoonotic diseases.

The CVO role highlights the importance of veterinary science to good public policy given the social, political, animal health, public health and economic consequences associated with serious animal diseases.

At the national level, the CVO provides:

• policy advice on animal and veterinary public health issues, by collaborating with Canada's veterinary colleges, the veterinary profession, the animal health community and the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada
• support to assess and interpret occurrences and trends in Canada and abroad
• analysis of Canada's veterinary infrastructure and its ability to respond to national and global threats to animal and human health
• environmental scanning, international context and knowledge transfer to support the programs and policies of the Government of Canada

The CVO regularly provides strategic and scientific advice to the federal Minister of Agriculture, the CFIA President, and Agency senior management on issues such as:

• international market access negotiations and the impact of evolving international standards
• program design and inspection system integrity
• regulatory trends and long-term policy development
• emerging animal health issues globally
• risk communications
• advancement of new animal biotechnology and scientific technology

Dr. Mary-Jane Ireland is the Chief Veterinary Officer for Canada.

Reference Material

• Statements from the Chief Veterinary Officer

Additional information

• Canadian Veterinary Medical Association
  • Veterinary associations and organizations
• International organizations
• Provincial and territorial governments
• Veterinarians without Borders
• Evaluation of Canada's Performance of Veterinary Services by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH; founded as Office International des Épizooties (OIE))
• World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)
• Veterinary Student Corner