AEMV Exotic Companion Mammal Specialty (ABVP) - The Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine - Association of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians

From its inception, AEMV had as a long term goal the development of a veterinarian specialty. To that end, an ABVP committee was formed and after many months of work, presented a petition to the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners (ABVP) for the Exotic Companion Mammal Practice Group. ABVP is recognized as the 'species specialty organization' by the AVMA.

In 2008, the AVMA granted provisional recognition to the ABVP-Exotic Companion Mammal (ECM) Specialty. This was the first new specialty since 1993. The specialty focuses on ferrets, rabbits, rodents, guinea pig and various miscellaneous pet mammal species.

AEMV is still very active in the continued development of this specialty. Many founding and current members of AEMV serve vital positions within ABVP-ECM and have also lectured at the annual ABVP continuing education Symposium.

The impacts that ECM has had in ABVP are:

First wet lab at ABVP Symposium (Dr. Cappello - 2011).
Was instrumental in allowing published papers to serve as 1 part of the ABVP credential process for the practitioner credential route (2009).
Changed the format of the ECM Practical examination to more realistic situations as opposed to multiple choice questions based on images (2010).
ABVP-ECM CE Proceedings are peer reviewed and now can be used on the ABVP examination (2010).

AEMV also plays a major role in CE offerings at ABVP making sure there is minimal, if any, overlap with CE at our annual meeting.

If you are interested in pursuing Specialist designation, please visit the ABVP-ECM website at http://abvp.com/categories_ecm.htm.

ABVP Exotic Companion Mammal Specialty (ECM)