AAEP/AVMA Economic Report

The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) partnered with the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) early in 2016 to produce a survey that explored the economics of the equine segment of the veterinary profession. As of December 31, 2017, there were 110,531 veterinarians in the United States, and a total of 117,735 veterinary positions that were being worked in.1 The equine sector is currently estimated at 5.7 percent of the total number of private practice positions in the United States. Of the 117,735 U.S. veterinary positions, 71,393 are private clinical practice, and 4,043 of these positions are positions in equine practice. An additional 4,220 positions are in mixed animal practice (“Market Research Statistics: U.S. Veterinarians 2017,” 2018).

The recession of 2008, coupled with changes in the equine industry, had a negative effect on equine practices (Blach, 2015), but little economic data were available to measure the impact of the economic downturn on the economics of equine veterinary practice. The objective of the AVMA-AAEP 2016 Survey of Equine Practitioners was to collect data to analyze the economics of the equine veterinary industry as well as answer important questions about the profession.

The downloadable report outlines the results of the AVMA-AAEP 2016 Survey of Equine Practitioners, with inclusion of data from the Equine respondents of the AVMA 2016 Census of Veterinarians, and contrasts these data with those of all U.S. veterinarians responding to the AVMA 2016 Census of Veterinarians, the annual general membership survey. Through understanding the current economic environment, efforts to improve the experiences of equine practitioners and the economic outcomes in equine practice may be more effective.