Dr or Mr?

Press, 18 February 1977, Page 7

Dr or Mr?

Should veterinary surgeons be called doctors? Dr H. M. (Hugh) Gordon, president of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists, says that this is a vexed question. The veterinary surgeons’ act in some states in Australia allowed veterinary surgeons to be called doctors, he said, but in others it was not legal for veterinarians to use the title. The problem sometimes arose, he said, where people came to Australia from overseas where a veterinary degree allowed the holder to use the title doctor and the public could look on this person as holding a superior qualification to the veterinarian down the street, who was only “mister”. His college, said Dr Gordon, was seeking to help its members by ensuring that where members or fellows of the college wanted to enter an academic or research field a university or research station would regard their qualifications as being at least equal to a doctorate of philosophy and probably better. control was the range of parasites they were active against, also the range of hosts and the range of habitats of the hosts. But there was always room for improvement in such ways as being able to reduce dosages and costs. Already he said that they were extraordinarily safe. As far as the treatment of sheep and cattle were concerned, he said that there were still some gaps to fill. It was- desirable to have better ways of killing immature and migratory worms and some dormant larvae. How ever he said that the cost of developing and marketing new drugs today was “just colossal.” Discussing future trends in the field of parasite control, Dr Gordon said that there were few examples of parasites being eradicated altogether, but where treatment was maintained he said that populations could be reduced to levels where it was possible to ease up on the intensity of the treatment. There were stories, he said, of parasites or worms becoming resistant to some