Public Health Veterinarian (PHV)

Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) veterinarians hold critical positions that uphold the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service’s (FSIS’) commitment to ensure food safety.

Responsibilities

Conduct antemortem and postmortem inspection of meat and poultry products.
Conduct foreign animal disease surveillance.
Supervise and assist food inspectors on the inspection line to ensure compliance with federal regulations.
Conduct inspection of egg products.
Enforce federal meat and poultry inspection procedures, including animal welfare laws.

What Does a PHV Do?

Evaluate

Veterinarians evaluate live animals to ensure sick and diseased animals or carcasses are condemned.

Ensure

Veterinarians ensure animals are humanely handled.

Protect

Veterinarians ensure only safe and wholesome meat, poultry and egg products enter the food supply.

Instill

Veterinarians help ensure consumer trust in the food supply.

Benefits

Paid vacation and sick leave
Health, dental, vision, life and long-term care insurance options
Flexible spending accounts
Federal government retirement plan

For more information:

https://www.dm.usda.gov/obp/payandbenefits.htm

Recruitment and Retention

A multi-year recruitment incentive is available for newly appointed in-plant veterinarians to positions with a full performance level of GS-12 in all duty stations nationwide.
This incentive is $5,000 per year for 4 years with a signed service agreement. The first payment is made after the first year of service is completed.
Former employees with at least a 90-day break in service may also be eligible.
FSIS currently is administering a retention incentive program for in-plant veterinarians. In-plant PHVs with 5-11 years of service as an in-plant PHV receive biweekly retention incentive payments. In-plant employees with 15 or more years of service receive a retention incentive after completion of key 5-year milestones after 15, 20, 25, and 30+ years of service.
Newly appointed in-plant PHVs are eligible for a first post of duty move in accordance with Federal Travel Regulations.
Creditable Service for Annual Leave Accrual (CSALA) may be granted for directly related non-Federal or military experience for leave accrual purposes, allowing those that meet the requirements to potentially be placed in a higher leave earning category than they would otherwise have been placed. CSALA must be granted prior to entrance on duty.