Book Description

Veterinary sciences include but exceed the study of domestic and non-domestic non-human species. The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has renewed and expanded the need of “one health” approaches –that is, the study of any biological process that involves interactions within and across species (humans included). Unintentionally but directly, COVID-19 has changed or may change everything – including veterinary sciences. For example, a field poorly developed before 2019 (bat immunology) is now, potentially, at the crossroads that connect infectious diseases affecting all vertebrates. Research associated with COVID-19 has facilitated or may promote the development and convergence of numerous technologies, theories, and methods. They include, although are not limited to (i) geographical information systems (which allow the study of actual factors found in the environment), (ii) cost-benefit oriented techniques, and (iii) data-driven (“top-down”) research designs, which identify questions and discover potential problems.