Cherbourg Vet Visit - promoting One Health for people and their pets

The Cherbourg Visiting Vet program began in 2016, in response to community-identified concerns around their pets. Cherbourg is an Aboriginal community within Wakka Wakka tribal boundaries, Australia. Colonisation has resulted in socio-economic circumstances such that the community seldom have access to veterinary services. Despite this, Cherbourg residents value their companion animals for a wide variety of emotional, utilitarian and cultural reasons. The collaboratively delivered One Health focused vet service is provided yearly, at no cost to residents, and aims to mitigate the impacts of dog and cat overpopulation through dog and cat neutering, as well as mitigate zoonotic parasite transfer through anti-parasitic treatments. Community engagement and school education are key to the program, and provide the final year veterinary students with cross-cultural engagement opportunities while the community benefits from animal health, care and hygiene knowledge sharing.