This Code of Good Veterinary Practices has been prepared under the direction of GVPvzw.

The Ministries of Agriculture and Public Health, the FAVV (Federaal Agentschap voor de Voedselveiligheid - Federal Agency for Food Safety), the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate, the College of Veterinary Surgeons, representatives of the veterinary profession, the Pharmaceutical Industry, the food industries, the distribution sector and the consumer organisations all had input in this Code.

This Code will be given the status of a national standard for veterinary surgeons.

The code was drawn up in such a way that it can be easily incorporated in an eventual European code, or into an ISO 9000-standard.

This Code was created as a response of the Belgian Veterinary Profession to the stable-to-table programmes in the whole food production chain.

Since veterinarians have an important role to play in animal health, animal welfare, public health and the prudent use of medicines, it was felt that the profession needs a system of external quality assurance.

As with all industries and services, the number of requirements, rules and regulations asked from the veterinarian by the governments, professional bodies, clientele, other industries, etc keeps rising year after year.

For all these reasons the VDV (Vlaamse Dierenartsen Vereniging) and the UPV (Union Professionnelle des Vétérinaires) decided to create a Code of Good Veterinary Practices. The College of Veterinary Surgeons and the University Veterinary Faculties supported this initiative.

The purpose of this Code is to enable the profession to show the general public that it is working against a set of standards to guarantee at all times that a quality veterinary service is being delivered, that it is a trustworthy partner in the food industries and that it uses medicines in a safe and professional manner.

The system is voluntary and practices, veterinarians and veterinary companies that want to join, will be able to demonstrate their clients and the general public that their veterinary quality system has been certified against this Code.

This code sets the requirements for quality control programmes in the veterinary profession. The implementation of this code will assist the veterinarian in guaranteeing that all requirements put upon him have been met.

The general requirements of this code are applicable to all veterinarians. More specific requirements regarding the different subsections of the professions are attached as separate schedules to the code.

A veterinarian, wanting to be GVP-certified, will have to implement all relevant clauses of the code and all requirements of the schedules applicable to his situation.

Certification will be done by an independent certification body, with expertise in the veterinary profession. All auditors involved will be veterinary surgeons.

Note: where the male gender is used in this text, this incorporates the female gender and vice versa.

More background information can be found in Appendix 1: FVE-document on the stable-to-table approach to animal health, animal welfare and public health.