Review on the Application of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in Veterinary Medicine

Geographical Information System (GIS) is a computer system that displays stored digital data developed over the last decade. GIS is a platform consisting of hardware, software, data and people and encompasses a fundamental and universally applicable set of value-added tools for input, transforming, data management and storage, analyzing, and output information that are geographically referenced. GIS can be applied to different veterinary activities. It can help to understand and explain the dynamics and spreading pattern of a disease and increase the speed of response in the case of a disease emergency. In an outbreak of a disease it could make the management of the situation easier, and it could also provide a tool to evaluate different strategies to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. The following areas in which GIS and special GIS-functions could be incorporated are presented: surveillance and monitoring of animal diseases, recording and reporting information, epidemic emergency, modeling disease spread, and planning control strategies. The technology has many features which make it ideal for use in animal disease control, including the ability to store information relating to demographic and causal factors and disease incidence on a geographical background, and a variety of spatial analysis functions.