Information about the Swedish Veterinary Association

The purpose of SVF is to safeguard the social, economic, professional and veterinary medical interests of its members, as well as to protect the veterinary profession and its future role in society.

Within the association, there are three councils: the Veterinary Medical Council, the Trade Union Council and the Entrepreneurs’ Council, each working with issues within their respective areas. The General Assembly (Fullmäktige) is held every second year and is the highest decision-making body of the association. Between the General Assemblies, the Executive Board has overall responsibility for the association’s ongoing work. The daily operations are carried out by the SVF office, which is headed by the Director General, who ensures that the Board’s decisions are implemented.

Membership in a trade union is an investment in working life. Trade union membership also helps support the negotiation of favourable collective agreements and the development of employment and salary processes. Solidarity is a fundamental value within the trade union movement, where we work together to improve conditions for our profession.

The Executive board

Henrik Rönnberg, president
Helena Torkelsson, vice president
Markus Abrahamsén, head of Committee for Veterinary Employment issues
Katarina Kjeller, head of Committee for Veterinary Business issues
Lena-Mari Tamminen, head of Committee for Veterinary Medicine
Emma Bergenkvist
Shwan Kareem

Committees

Professional issues concerning the development of veterinary medicine are handled within the Committee for Veterinary Medicine, while employment issues and issues concerning practice management are handled within the Committee for Veterinary Employment issues and the Committee for Veterinary Business issues, respectively.

The Committee for Veterinary Medicine has five sections: Horses, Animals in research, Production animals, Small animals  and veterinary public health. Activities include the scientific programme of the yearly Veterinary Congress, initiating projects in important professional topics, and managing the national veterinary specialisation programmes. Many projects result in guidelines that support veterinarians in their daily work.  Guidelines for the clinical use of antibiotics in the treatment of livestock and horses are available to all veterinarians as is the general policy on use of antibiotics.

Currently the regulation on veterinary specialisation is under review. Specialist programmes will be available in Diseases in dogs and cats, Diseases in horses, Diseases in cattle, Diseases in pigs, Disease of small ruminants and Veterinary public health.

Members

The majority of all Swedish veterinarians are members of the Swedish Veterinary Association, as well as many of the veterinary students at the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Agricultural Sciences. 

The main fields of work for Swedish veterinarians are: Clinical practitioners - clinical practice with farm animals, horses and companion animals. Out of these, many are employed by the Board of Agriculture as district veterinarians, the remaining work as private practitioners. A large number of veterinarians are working in animal hospitals, most with companion animals, but there are also some equine hospitals.

Veterinarians working in food hygiene – employed by the Swedish Food Administration for meat inspection, laboratory work, hygiene control etc. In co-operation with SACO, statistics on veterinary salaries for employed veterinarians are compiled every year.

SVF is an important stakeholder in all matters regarding veterinary medicine, animal health and welfare, animal and food production. The Ministry of Agriculture, the National Food Administration, the Swedish Board of Agriculture, as well as various organisations regularly request the opinion of SVF on different legislative proposals, policy documents and reports.SVF also actively seeks to influence decisions of importance for veterinarians, veterinary medicine, the veterinary profession, public health and animal welfare.

For some issues, working groups are set up to prepare background material and suggest decisions to the SVF Executive Board. In addition to these, temporary working groups a number of permanent committees have been set up within SVF. An example of such a committee is the Committee on Animal Welfare.

Many issues are relevant not only on national but also on international level. As a member of the federation of Veterinarians I Europe (FVE) and the World Veterinary Association, SVF endeavours to influence matters of importance to the Swedish veterinary profession.

The Swedish Veterinary Journal

Information and communication are important in the work of SVF. In addition to social media activities and direct communication with members and external actors, SVF publishes the Swedish Veterinary Journal (Svensk Veterinärtidning, SVT) with articles on veterinary medicine, information on the work of SVF and various matters of interest for Swedish veterinarians. The journal constitutes the main source of veterinary information in Sweden.

The journal website is: https://www.svenskveterinartidning.se/

E-mail: [email protected]
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Contact us

The office of SVF is situated at Kungsholms Hamnplan 7 in Stockholm.
Postal address: Box 12709, S-112 94 STOCKHOLM, Sweden.
Telephone: +46 8 545 558 20
E-mail: [email protected]