Study Programmes 2016-2017
VETE2067-1  
Principles of practice of veterinary medicine
  • Welfare and ethics
  • Veterinary law and deontology
  • Legal provisions
  • Meeting with the veterinary profession
Duration :
Welfare and ethics : 10h Th
Veterinary law and deontology : 17h Th
Legal provisions : 13h Th
Meeting with the veterinary profession : 4h Mon. WS
Number of credits :
Master in veterinary medicine (60 ECTS)4
Lecturer :
Welfare and ethics : Marc Vandenheede
Veterinary law and deontology : Pascal Gustin, Benoît Kohl, Claude Saegerman
Legal provisions : Hugues Guyot, Claude Saegerman
Meeting with the veterinary profession : Georges Daube
Coordinator :
Claude Saegerman
Language(s) of instruction :
French language
Organisation and examination :
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents :
Welfare and ethic
Animal Welfare can be defined as a dynamic balance state between the animal and its environment. Each animal, as sensitive entity is characterised by specific needs and limited adaptation skills. Exceeding those limits can generate physical and mental suffering affecting both animal health and sustainable management of the farm. Human-animal relationships might also be disrupted. Scientific studies implemented in that field enlightens the ethical debate related to the animal usage by men (« Animal ethic »). The veterinarian place is central in this debate.
Veterinary law and deontology
In the part of the course allocated to deontology (P. Gustin - 5 h), the structure and functioning of the order of veterinaries are explained and the articles of the deontology code are commented.
In the part dedicated to "Law and veterinary medicine" (B. Köhl et C. Saegerman - 12 h), students receive simultaneously an initiation to the Belgian legal system and the essential legal rules to be respected in their professional practice.
Legal dispositions
In the part Legal dispositions in the veterinary practice (C. Saegerman - 8 h), the following chapters are presented:
  • Introduction
  • Legal framework
  • Identification, registration, traceability, mandatory notification, sectorial guides for self-control
  • Laboratory information management system (LIMS)
  • Epidemiosurveillance in veterinary public health
  • Emerging/ re-emerging zoonosis: challenges and opportunities.
  • Enzooties
  • Epizooties
In the part of the course dedicated to Veterinary Guidance (H. Guyot - 5h), presentation of the content of the Royal decree of April 10th 2000 regarding the provisions on veterinary guidance as well as other laws and associated decrees such as the law on the veterinary medicine practice. Other important topics will also be developed (veterinary products usage, sanitary status, redhibitory defects, etc.).
Meeting with veterinary professionals
Organization of a meeting between students and veterinary professionals (G. Daube - 4 h).
Learning outcomes of the learning unit :
The teaching unit aims four distinct learning objectives.
Welfare and ethic
  • Animal welfare: definition and contextualization, notions of needs and suffering, appreciation.
  • Notions of animal ethic
  • Application to animal production
  • Application to companion animals
  • Application to laboratory animals
  • Application to wildlife animals in captivity
Veterinary law and deontology
The objective of the Deontology course is to inform on the necessity to respect a certain number of rules when practicing veterinary medicine.
The objective of the course of Law and veterinary medicine aims to give to the future doctors in veterinary medicine an initiation to the law rules under which their professional practice will be implemented. This course has two parts. The first part of the course is dedicated to the study of the five most frequent norms encountered by the veterinarians:
  • international norms
  • laws and decrees
  • royal decrees
  • ministerial decrees and
  • agreements between individuals.
The study of each norm is illustrated by exposing different rules of special interest for the veterinarians such as the international conventions regarding animals, European directives regarding the training and establishment of the veterinarians, the laws related to animal protection and welfare, the laws related to animal health, the royal decrees concerning the application of these laws, the medical contract, the work contract and the V.A.T.
The second part of the course is dedicated to the implementation of legal sanctions. It contains:
  • Presentation of the legal system with a special focus on the legal expert role and function,
  • Presentation of the civil responsibility rules, especially in regards to animal facts and professional responsibility insurance,
  • introduction on animals sales and redhibitory defects in the case of animal sales and
  • a summarised description of the actual enforcement of legal sanctions.
Legal dispositions
The learning objective of the course on legal disposition is to raise the awareness of the veterinary students on their future role regarding veterinary public health.
Meeting with veterinary professionals
The learning objective of the meeting with veterinary professionals is to present the filed reality and the diversity of possible
Prerequisite knowledge and skills :
Welfare and ethic
  • Construction, functioning and animal behaviour
  • Animal productions
  • Pathologies
  • Open mind
Veterinary law and deontology
None
Legal dispositions
Co-requisite: immunology and pathology of viral, bacterial and parasitological diseases.
Meeting with the veterinary profession
None
Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
Welfare and ethic
  • Conferences in auditorium (10h)
  • Link with the paraclinics of "Veterinary management of animal productions" (VETE2032-A-a): small group debates on a given subject.
Veterinary law and deontology
  • Course in auditorium (17h)
  • Interactive session
  • The teachers are available at the end of the class in order to answer students' questions.
Legal dispositions
  • Course in auditorium (13h)
  • Interactive session largely illustrated by a computer assisted presentation.
  • The teachers are available at the end of the class in order to answer students' questions.
Meeting with veterinary professionals
  • Testimonies from professionals
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :
Welfare and ethic
  • On campus
Veterinary law and deontology
  • On campus
Legal dispositions
  • On campus
Meeting with the veterinary profession
  • Presentation in an auditorium
Recommended or required readings :
Welfare and ethic
See files on "My ULg"
Veterinary law and deontology
- Paul Delnoy, Benoît Kohl, Claude Saegerman with the collaboration of Quentin Cordie. Droit vétérinaire. Editions Larcier, 2015, 307 pages. ISBN 978-2-8044-8599-3.
- Kohl B., Nicks B., Saegerman C. (2011). Exercice de la médecine vétérinaire. Sélection de la réglementation. Les codes thématiques Larcier, Edition De Boeck, Bruxelles, Belgique, 397 pages, ISBN : 978-2-8044-4910-0.
Legal dispositions
  • Course notes available at the « Office des cours".
  • Reference book: no recommended books but a list of internet websites with available and useful information are mentioned in the course notes.
Meeting with the veterinary profession
Nothing
Assessment methods and criteria :
Evaluation modalities and criteria:
The meeting with veterinary professionals is no subject to any formal evaluation but effective presence at the meeting is compulsory.  Indeed, when an absence is not duly justified a maximum grade of 9/20 for the whole teaching unit will be given.
The evaluation concerns 3 distinct learning activities: welfare and ethic (25% of the points), veterinary law and deontology (42,5% of the points) and legal dispositions (32,5% of the points).
The final grade is the average of the grades obtained in each of the 3 learning activities mentioned for the teaching unit weighted based on their respective number of hours if all the grades obtained are sufficient. If the student obtained an insufficient grade in one of the 3 teaching activities, this grade is reported as a global grade. In the second session, the student will only represent the activities for which the grade obtained was < 10, independently of the average grade obtained in each activity.
Partial exemptions are applied the next year in case of failure in the second session. These measures are also valid for students who have not credited the teaching unit in 2015-2016. The student who has validated his presence at the meeting with the veterinary profession is exempt from the obligation to represent it.
The part on welfare and ethic is made of multiple choice questions.
The part on veterinary law and deontology is made of multiple choice questions (law and deontology) and open-ended questions (law).
About the deontology activity, the code of deontology (www.ordre-veterinaires.be/) is the theoretical basis of the course (compulsory reading). The documents available on e-campus are a synthesis of the most important points and commentaries made on the most important articles of the code which were developed during the course.
The part on legal dispositions is composed of MCQ (guidance) and short open-ended questions (legal dispositions).
The evaluation - in first and second sessions- will take place on the dates fixed by the Faculty.
Work placement(s) :
Organizational remarks :
Contacts :
Welfare and ethic


  • Marc Vandenheede
University of Liege
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Veterinary ethology, animal Welfare and animal ethic
Quartier Vallée 2, avenue de Cureghem 6, Bât. B43, 4000 Liège, Belgium
Phone: +32 4 366-41-48
E-mail: Marc.Vandenheede@ulg.ac.be
 
Veterinary law and deontology


  • Prof. Benoît Kohl
University of Liege
Faculty of law
Responsibility and contracts
Quartier Agora, place des Orateurs 3, B31, 4000 Liège
Phone: +32 4 366-30-90
E-mail: benoit.kohl@ulg.ac.be


  • Prof. Pascal Gustin
University of Liege
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Pharmacology, pharmacotherapy and toxicology
Quartier Vallée 2, avenue de Cureghem 5A-5D, Bât. B41, 4000 Liège
Phone: +32 4 366-41-70
E-mail: p.gustin@ulg.ac.be


  • Prof. Claude Saegerman
University of Liege
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Epidemiology and risk analysis applied to veterinary sciences
Quartier Vallée 2, Avenue de Cureghem 7A, Bât. B42, 4000 Liège
Phone: +32 4 366-45-79
E-mail : claude.saegerman@ulg.ac.be
 
Legal dipositions


  • Prof. Hugues Guyot
University of Liege
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Management of ruminants health
Quartier Vallée 2, avenue de Cureghem 7A-7D, Bât. B42, 4000 Liège
Phone: 04/366-40-20
E-mail: Hugues.Guyot@ulg.ac.be


  • Prof. Claude Saegerman
University of Liege
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Epidemiology and risk analysis applied to veterinary sciences
Quartier Vallée 2, Avenue de Cureghem 7A, Bât. B42, 4000 Liège
Phone: +32 4 366-45-79 
E-mail: claude.saegerman@ulg.ac.be
 
Meeting with the veterinary profession


  • Prof. Georges Daube, Doyen
University of Liege
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Microbiology of food products
Quartier Vallée 2, avenue de Cureghem 10, Bât. B43bis, 4000 Liège
Phone: +32 4 366-40-15
E-mail: doyen.fmv@ulg.ac.be