There is a high demand for a veterinary education in animal welfare (AW) with different approaches from the academic, society and trade points of view. Latin American (LA) countries members of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) are under the urge and should be obligated to teach AW. The aims of this article are to analyze the current drives of change on the importance of teaching animal welfare in LA, the competences recommended from international education organizations for the region, and to provide the contents on the curriculum in AW that a future veterinarian should achieve in the LA scenario, in other words to examine why teaching AW, what should be taught and how. Despite significant advances in introducing AW into veterinary training programs, much remains to be done regarding the future of this field in teaching veterinary science in Spain and LA countries, and in including this science as an independent course in programs at distinct levels to integrate the scientific, ethical and legal aspects of AW. This paper presents a proposal that was constructed with a view towards integrating diverse curricular approaches based on criteria, contents and concepts provided by the researchers and professors who collaborated in the book entitled: Bienestar Animal: Una Visión Global en Iberoamerica [Animal Welfare: A Global Vision in Ibero-America]. To ensure veterinary students will be better equipped to graduate with OIE day 1 competencies in AW, teaching approaches are needed that support projectbased learning and gamification, critical thinking, reflection and collaborative learning.

Introduction

Animal welfare (AW) is a subject of increasing interest to society, thus the veterinary medical profession has an opportunity —and a duty— to provide leadership and expertise [1]. Both the public and the international institutions that regulate the veterinary profession have high expectations that veterinarians will understand and take the lead in issues of AW [2]. An increasing number of Latin-American scientists have been doing a high level of research. In the last decades, an increasing number of Latin-American scientists, mainly from veterinary faculties – have been doing a high level of research, resulting in numerous papers on AW rising five times in the Journal Citation Research database of the ISI Web of Science [3]. But the question is: Are they trained to teach AW? [3]. To answer this question, the curriculum of veterinarian training programs must be taken into consideration. In Latin American countries two different veterinary programs are available, one is “doctor in Veterinary zootechnics” (VZ) and the other is Veterinary Medicine (VM). While VZ is the official denomination for those who undergo a dual training program in veterinary medicine and animal husbandry in universities of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Mexico. VM prepares medical professionals in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, who protect the health and well-being of both animals and people, and their curricula is full of medicine topics. They diagnose and control animal diseases and treat sick and injured animals; whereas VZ, although they also have subjects focused on medicine and animal health, among other competences, their curricula also focus on how to improve the development of environmentally friendly production technologies, how to increase the production of confined farm animals and improve product quality, focused on food safety. To meet these obligations, VZ/VM need to be trained to confront the challenges involved in maintaining animal health and productivity, ensuring their good welfare. For these reasons, students of veterinary medicine need to acquire knowledge in several key fields: physiology, pathology, clinical diagnostics, epidemiology, bioethics, and applied ethology of farm animals, companion animals and wildlife, as only this will enable them to integrally learn and assimilate the concept of AW. Without doubt, including aspects of AW in the veterinary curricula will complement their professional training of future VZ/VM, and since there is a growing awareness of AW among the public at large, as a driving force for change —seen in many countries as pacific demonstrations— it is important that we adapt our teaching systems to fulfill the professional competence that a VZ/VM requires by the society, in other words, a responsible, committed professional with good communicating skills, well-versed in communication and information technologies, that can become an outstanding leader or member of teams devoted to promoting and ensuring AW [4].