[Automation: specter or aspiration for the large-animal practitioner?]

Automatic data processing in veterinary practices is rapidly progressing. Automation of the administration of practices was an important factor in starting these developments, and electronic processing of health and production data within the framework of a herd health and production service programme is enjoying considerable current interest. Information networks will be set up by agricultural branch organizations, the national and regional centres, the Stichting V-Data and commercial organizations. These will make the supply of information to and communication among animal owners, practitioners, advisers and other disciplines operational on a large scale. The data banks developed from information networks may be utilized, among other things, in epidemiological investigations and in taking well-founded decisions regarding management. The rapid advance of the technology of information in the animal production section will considerably affect the management of veterinary practices. The practitioner will have to be able to interpret his computer data and translate them into advice and measures to be adopted by animal owners. Epidemiological training will have to be an essential part of the activities of the veterinarian to enable him to interpret interactions of conditions and management on the one hand and the health status and state of production on the other. Establishing a merely clinical diagnosis in which interaction of host and pathogenic agent is central, will no longer suffice. Rather, an epidemiological diagnosis is required, in which the environment and its many vectors are also included. Apart from the variety of new possibilities to which entry is gained, the central co-ordinating position which can be occupied in the animal production section, will be considerably strengthened.