Conservation medicine: A discipline for veterinarians? : ¿una disciplina para médicos veterinarios?
Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia. Sede Bucaramanga.
The biodiversity crisis has risen as a new challenge for several disciplines at a global scale. The loss of species has resulted in an increased interest in the development of strategies to identify the causes and to establish plans to conserve the remaining species. Considering the complexity of the situation wildlife is facing, a serious commitment is needed from every profession to generate knowledge. Veterinary medicine becomes a profession with a great deal of relevance for the discipline of conservation medicine in the endeavor of avoiding species loss. Conservation medicine studies the complex interactions between pathogens, wildlife, domestic fauna, and ecosystems, involving not only animal health but public health as well. There is evidence in numerous cases of wildlife species facing extinction due to emerging diseases, or of human pandemics originated in animals, all of which have been widely reported in medical, veterinary and conservation literature, and showing the long due task for veterinary medicine of taking its part in conservation medicine. In Colombia veterinarians have probably been responsible for limiting their field of work to private practice. Nevertheless, in the face of the current circumstances, we need to move from consideration to action. Acting means getting involved, occupying the space and staying in it.
