Читать книгу Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters - Группа авторов - Страница 18

While scientific advances have been significant, one of the most dramatic developments regarding disease control in shelters has been the rapid evolution of the field of shelter medicine itself. The original edition of this book was published within a decade of such milestones as the first formal course in shelter medicine (taught at Cornell University in 1999), the establishment of the first Shelter Medicine residency training program at UC Davis in 2001, and the founding of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians (ASV) in that same year. Many veterinary colleges have since incorporated shelter medicine classes and shelter externship opportunities into their core and elective curricula.

In the decade since then, the rapid expansion of shelter medicine has been a striking development within veterinary medicine as well as within the field of animal sheltering. From a disease control perspective, a major milestone was reached with the publication of the ASV Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters in 2010. This document addressed everything from shelter management, policy and record‐keeping; through population management, facility design and sanitation; to the maintenance of physical and behavioral health of animals. The guidelines provide a powerful foundation for any program to maintain shelter animal health because all these elements are interrelated.

In addition to the ASV shelter guidelines, there has been an explosion of resources regarding virtually every aspect of shelter animal care and management. Along with a second edition of the seminal textbook “Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians and Staff,” veterinary guidelines and/or textbooks now exist addressing data collection and interpretation in shelters; animal behavior for shelter veterinarians and staff, forensic medicine; high quality, high volume spay/neuter, and more. Websites maintained by shelter medicine programs at various veterinary colleges (e.g. UC Davis, Cornell, the University of Florida, University of Wisconsin) and organizations such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and Maddies' Fund are just a few of the resources that provide useful and practical information for shelter medicine professionals.

The development of shelter medicine as a veterinary specialty has accompanied this proliferation of resources and research. The American Board of Veterinary Specialties conferred provisional recognition of shelter medicine as a specialty within the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners (ABVP) in 2014, and the first diplomates were certified the following year. As more veterinarians seek and attain board certification in shelter medicine, the pool of research and expert consultants to support successful disease‐control programs in shelters will continue to grow.