Regulating veterinary practices in the expanded EU will be essential to fight epidemics such as foot-and-mouth, the Department of Agriculture's chief veterinary officer has said.
Mr Paddy Rogan yesterday also called for border inspection posts across an enlarged Europe to be put in place to regulate and control animal movement.
"Disease doesn't respect frontiers and that concern will always be there whether dealing with foot-and-mouth, TB or brucellosis," he said in Kilkenny.
He told the heads of veterinary medicine in each of the 15 EU member-states, and their counterparts in the 10 accession states, which will join the EU on May 1st, that better controls need to be put in place for animal traceability.
"The future training of vets in a new EU catering for over 400 million consumers who eat dairy, meat or poultry products will have to change," he added.
Mr Rogan said the Department of Agriculture employed 350 full-time vets.
"The large, export-listed meat plants in this country employ anywhere between 500 and 700 private vets per day.
"We are trying to generate an international debate on the challenges, risks and changes facing vets due to the enlarged EU," he said.
The Irish Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Assessment was becoming increasingly important in preventing and monitoring disease outbreaks."We must find the most appropriate way forward to tackle the problems ahead," he added.