Career profile · SOC ESC-744377FD

general veterinarian

General veterinarians are professionals with a comprehensive scientific education. They have the authority to carry out, in an independent, ethical and personally responsible capacity, all aspects of veterinary medicine, in the interest of the health and welfare of animals and public health in accordance with national and international legislation. The generalist veterinarian can work with any species, however they may choose to work with a single species or types such as equine, companion or production animals.

general veterinarian general veterinarians are professionals with a comprehensive scientific education. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.50 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include biosecurity related to animals, signs of animal illness, animal food products, animal welfare legislation, animal production science.

AI exposure
5.0/10
automation risk

Pay in the UK

UK: median £51,058 a year for Veterinarians (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)

UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 2240). ONS rates this estimate acceptable: it rests on a small sample, so treat it as a rough guide. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)

Pay in India (occupation group)

Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Professionals” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only general veterinarian, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.

Urban India
₹42,717 a month
Rural India
₹30,424 a month
All India
₹38,466 a month

Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 2. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report

Top skills

biosecurity related to animals signs of animal illness animal food products animal welfare legislation animal production science animal welfare physiology of animals environmental enrichment for animals fundamental veterinary sciences safe work practices in a veterinary setting

Knowledge you'll build

  • Biology
  • Mathematics
  • English Language
  • Chemistry
  • Food Production
  • Education and Training
  • Customer and Personal Service
  • Computers and Electronics

What you'd actually do

  • Study nutritional requirements of animals and nutritive values of animal feed materials.
  • Write up or orally communicate research findings to the scientific community, producers, and the public.
  • Develop improved practices in feeding, housing, sanitation, or parasite and disease control of animals.
  • Advise producers about improved products and techniques that could enhance their animal production efforts.
  • Conduct research concerning animal nutrition, breeding, or management to improve products or processes.
  • Study effects of management practices, processing methods, feed, or environmental conditions on quality and quantity of animal products, such as eggs and milk.

Tools & technology you'd use

Autodesk AutoCAD hot ESRI ArcGIS software hot Microsoft Access hot Microsoft Excel hot Microsoft Office software hot Microsoft PowerPoint hot Microsoft Word hot Oracle PeopleSoft hot SAS hot Structured query language SQL hot Tableau hot Best Linear Unbiased Prediction BLUP

Frequently asked questions

What does general veterinarian do?

General veterinarians are professionals with a comprehensive scientific education. They have the authority to carry out, in an independent, ethical and personally responsible capacity, all aspects of veterinary medicine, in the interest of the health and welfare of animals and public health in accordance with national and international legislation.

What skills does general veterinarian need?

The most in-demand skills for this role include biosecurity related to animals, signs of animal illness, animal food products, animal welfare legislation, animal production science, animal welfare. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.

Will AI replace general veterinarian?

Our AI-durability model gives general veterinarian a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.

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