Strategies for educational action to meet veterinary medicine's role in biodefense and public health.

It is clear that the profession is not well prepared to respond to society's needs in bio-defense and public health. The imperatives that face the veterinary profession, as emphasized by the agenda for action conference deliberations that are reported in this issue of the journal, require action on many fronts, but possibly none more essential than to address how veterinary education needs to change to meet these challenges. Addressing these needs, participants at the agenda for action conference met in groups of 30 to 50 to shape approaches that would address these key questions.