veterinary state examination

How is the veterinary state examination structured?

§ 29 of the TAppV lists 20 examination subjects: from animal husbandry and animal hygiene, animal welfare and ethology, animal nutrition and clinical propaedeutics, through virology, bacteriology and mycology, parasitology, animal disease control, pharmacology and toxicology, drug and narcotic law, poultry diseases and radiology, to pathology, food science, meat hygiene, dairy science, reproductive medicine, internal medicine, surgery and anaesthesiology, and forensic veterinary medicine, professional and disciplinary law. Examinations are oral, oral-practical, or written depending on the subject. Unlike the human medicine state examination, there are no nationally uniform written examination dates; each of the five institutions examines according to its own schedule.

What deadlines apply, and what happens on failing?

The final examinations listed in § 30 TAppV may not be completed before the end of the eighth semester. These include general pathology and special pathological anatomy, food hygiene, meat hygiene, milk hygiene, internal medicine, surgery and anaesthesiology, reproductive medicine, and forensic veterinary medicine. A subject not passed may under § 17 TAppV be retaken twice, at the earliest three weeks after the failed attempt. After the second unsuccessful attempt it is permanently failed, and the chair of the examination committee notifies the other institutions. Starting afresh at another university is then no longer possible. This is the hardest hurdle in the entire programme.

What does this mean for graduates from EU countries abroad?

Anyone who studies in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Malta, or the Baltic states sits the national final examination there, not the German veterinary state examination. Under § 4(1a) of the Federal Act on the Veterinary Profession, veterinary training completed in an EU or EEA state is nevertheless treated as training within the meaning of § 4(1)(4), provided that the qualification is listed in the annex to the statute and training began after the reference date stated there. Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are not part of the EU; qualifications from there go through the equivalence review under § 4(2) BTÄO. Which route applies in any individual case is decided by the competent state authority.

Common misconceptions

The veterinary state examination is not a single block at the end of the programme but is spread across semesters five to eleven. Nor does it replace the practical training: without the required certificates there is no admission to the examination subjects.