ILAR Journal Online, Volume 38(4) 1997: Understanding and Using the Internet and the World Wide Web

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ILAR Journal V38(4) 1997
Understanding and Using the Internet and the World Wide Web

Animal Resources on the Web
Ken Boschert

Ken Boschert, D.V.M., is Associate Director of Comparative Medicine, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.

The opportunity to observe the World Wide Web (WWW¹ or Web¹) grow from its infancy in 1993 to the present has pro- vided some insights into its relevance to the veterinary pro- fession and those who interact with any of a variety of animal species. Beginning as a simple text file sent by electronic mail to friends and colleagues, the NetVet Veterinary Resources and Electronic Zoo Web sites (hereafter referred to as NetVet and Electronic Zoo) evolved into comprehensive central directories for discovering and exploring veterinary medical and animal resources on the Internet. By 1997, the Web server hosting these resources (http://netvet.wustl.edu/) averaged more than 10,000 page impressions per day. Recently, both Web sites have been licensed by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA¹) as part of their overall Web efforts, collectively known as AVMA Online (http://www.avma.org/). Many of the resources are also cata- loged in a recent book entitled Mosby's NetVet: A Guide to Veterinary Information on the Internet (1998) (http://www.mosby.com/Mosby/netvet/).

Feedback from people who use NetVet and Electronic Zoo indicates that these Web sites appeal to a diverse audience ranging from veterinarians and biomedical researchers to farmers and students of all age groups. Part of the attraction is due to the site's overall simplicity and efficiency in design, making it relatively easy to navigate and locate a particular area of interest. This article uses the outline of the NetVet and Electronic Zoo categories to highlight some of the numerous Internet resources that would be most useful to those who work chiefly in biomedical research.

The basic layout of the NetVet server (http://netvet.wustl.edu/vet.htm) is divided into major sections describing the following: "what's new"; a local search engine; information on veterinary careers; veterinary educational institutional Web home pages; information on a variety of veterinary careers, specialities, associations, upcoming meetings, directories, and individual home pages; mailing lists; electronic publications; images; government resources; and commercial organizations. The Electronic Zoo (http://netvet.wustl.edu/e-zoo.htm) half of the server is arranged similarly but with additional emphasis on a variety of animal species, including amphibians, birds, cats, dogs, ferrets, fish, horses, invertebrate species, marine mammals, pigs, primates, rabbits, reptiles, rodents, small ruminants, wildlife, and zoo animal species. Other highlights of the server include a weekly featured site, the Pick of the Litter (http://netvet.wustl.edu/litterpk.htm), and the WWW Virtual Library of Veterinary Medicine (http://netvet.wustl.edu/vetmed.htm).

Each menu layout is represented in both graphics and text, and each page is designed to return quickly to the parent menu. Some of the pages also have clickable image map pointers or CGI scripts to move quickly between different sections of the site. All of the graphics were purposely kept small to increase the speed with which the pages would load and allow users to find links of interest quickly. A local search engine (http://netvet.wustl.edu/srchform.htm) also provides a method to locate links listed on a particular page and to pinpoint individual sites, listed alphabetically on most pages. The NetVet site runs under Web site software from O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. (http://website.ora.com/) on a Windows NT server.

Situations and answers to commonly asked biomedical research questions can be located easily through the NetVet and Electronic Zoo site. Examples of these are illustrated in the remainder of the text.

It is fortunate that many, if not most, US government agencies are now represented on the Web, because researchers who work with animals will be confronted with the bureaucracy of government regulation at least once. On NetVet, these resources have been assembled on the Veterinary Government & Law Resources page (http://netvet.wustl.edu/law.htm). Numerous general-purpose Web sites listing all federal resources are linked, including the FedWorld Information Network (http://www.fedworld.gov/). Also of interest to biomedical researchers is the National Institutes of Health (NIH) site, NIH Office for Protection from Research Risks (http://www.nih.gov/grants/oprr/oprr.htm), which maintains information on federal policies, laws, and regulations regarding human and animal health and welfare in biomedical research. The National Center for Research Resources site (http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/) provides useful information on intramural and extramural research programs and resources. The US Department of Agriculture also hosts a wealth of regulatory sites, including Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/), Animal Care Unit (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ac/), and Animal Welfare Information Center (http://www.nalusda.gov/awic/awic.htm). The Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine site (http://www.cvmfda.gov/) contains information concerning the manufacture and distribution of drugs and feed additives intended for animals. Of course, the Institute for Laborabory Animal Research (ILAR) itself provides Web access to such important documents as the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (http://www2.nas.edu/ilarhome/240a.html) and Occupational Health and Safety in the Care and Use of Research Animals (http://www2.nas.edu/ilarhome/2ld6.htm).

Veterinarians and technicians searching for colleagues with Re interests need look no farther than the links assembled under the NetVet Veterinary & Animal Science Organization page (http://netvet.wustl.edu/vetorg.htm). All the major laboratory animal organizations are located there, including the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (http://www.aaalac.org/) and the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (http://www.aalas.org/). Dozens of other specialty organizations are linked from this page. Those looking for information concerning the benefits of using animals in biomedical research might wish to visit Web sites hosted by the Foundation for Biomedical Research (http://www.fbresearch.org/), the Americans for Medical Progress Educational Foundation (http://www.ampef.org/), or the Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (http://www.aamc.org/research/primr/). Individuals interested in institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) functions might visit the Web home of the Applied Research Ethics National Association (http://www.aamc.org/research/primr/arena/) or Iacuc.org, one of the latest resources sponsored by several relevant organizations (http://www.iacuc.org/).

Veterinarians, in particular, are typically asked by students about careers in the profession. NetVet assembles numerous links to career resources under the Veterinary Careers page (http://netvet.wustl.edu/vcareer.htm), where students or others interested in the veterinary profession can gain access to quality sites such as those maintained by the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (http://www.aavmc.org/) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (http://www.avma.org/). Peterson's Guide (http://www.petersons.com/) provides access to a database of all the 2- and 4-year veterinary and technician programs in the United States. Those looking for veterinary-related jobs should take a look at services such as those provided by DVMSearch (http://www.dvmsearch.com/) or Veterinary Jobs on the Net (http://www.showcom.con/user/vetjobs.htm). All US and Canadian veterinary colleges are represented on the Web, and many veterinary and comparative medical departments also have home pages. Most of them can be located under the general NetVet page (http://netvet.wustl.edu/vschool.htm), which is divided into sections profiling 4-year colleges in the United States and throughout the world. Preveterinary and veterinary technology programs are also listed.

The Web is an increasingly popular means of publishing meeting and conference information. The NetVet Veterinary Meetings page (http://netvet.wustl.edu.meetings.htm) collects links most relevant to veterinary professionals and biomedical researchers, including continuing education events and international conferences. There are several examples of online distance education, including those sponsored by the Veterinary Information Network (http://www.vin.com/) and the WebEd Virtual University (http://ceus.com/vs.htm). The National Animal Disease Center recently hosted a month-long Virtual Conference on Animal Diseases (http://www.nadc.ars.usda.gov/virtconf/main.htm), complete with keynote speakers, abstracts, and poster sessions.

Other educational uses of the Web are abundant, and many are located under the NetVet heading entitled Veterinary Images (http://netvet.wustl.edu/vetimg.htm). Some of the more innovative projects are listed at the Web site of the Consortium of North American Veterinary Interactive New Concept Education (http://www.convince.org/). A particularly interesting site in early development is Virtual Reality and Case Abstract (http://vrmi.vetuga.edu/), located at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. A number of collections of pathology images include those found at the University of Bristol (http://www.ets.bris.ac.uk/vetintro.htm), the SLIDE Library at the University of Arizona's Department of Veterinary Science (http://microvet.arizona.edu/SLIDE/slideIndex.html), and the excellent PATHIT: Pathology Online server (http://www.pathit.com/).

The Web is a perfect extension of the print medium. Veterinary and scientific publications (such as journals and newsletters) traditionally found in print appear under the NetVet Web page Veterinary Publications and References (http://netvet.wustl.edu/vcp.htm). Although some publication Web sites provide only abstracts, others are using such tools as Adobe's Acrobat software (http://www.adobe.com/) to provide full text and graphics articles online, usually for fees. Good examples for laboratory animal species would include the Laboratory Primate Newsletter (http://www.brown.edu/Research/Primate/), Lab Animal Magazine (http://www.labanimal.com/), and the journals Laboratory Animals (http://www.mandm.ncl.ac.uk/laban.html), Laboratory Animal Science (http://www.aalas.org/laonline.htm), and Contemporary Topics (http://www.aalas.org/ctonline.htm) from the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS). General science topics can be located quickly from services such as BioMedNet's HMS Beagle (http://biomednet.com/hmsbeagle/) or The Scientist (http://www.the-scientist.library.upenn.edu/). These arejust a sampling. Most veterinary medical libraries also have home pages (http://duke.usask.ca/~ladd/vet_libraries.html). One veterinary library Web site of note is located at the University of Montreal (http://www.medvet.umontreal.ca/ biblio/), where dozens of veterinary journals and proceed- ings have been organized with tables of contents and abstracts available online. One journal, the Online Journal of Veterinary Research (http://www.cpb.uokhsc.edu/OJVR/jvet196a.htm), publishes exclusively on the Web.

Of course, it is not always possible to find desired information in published form. Increasingly, people have turned to electronic discussion groups to ask colleagues for help and pointers. The NetVet server provides a long list of such groups on the Veterinary & Animal Mailing List page (http://netvet.wustl.edu/vmla.htm). Lists ranging from amphibians to wildlife are linked, and if not, the larger search services such as Liszt (http://www.liszt.com/) will enable the user to enter keyword searches for other mailing lists of interest. Popular lists for those in biomedical research include Applied Ethology, CompMed, Primate-Talk, ProMed, and Rat-Talk. Major veterinary medical lists include Dairy-L, VetMed, VetPlus-L, EpiVet-L, Vetlnfo, and WLRehab. A list of animal-related Usenet newsgroups can also be found on NetVet (http://netvet.wustl.edu/usenet.htm).

Not all of the Web is strictly educational. Commercial organizations play a large role in the ongoing development of the Web through the infusion of capital necessary to conduct business and promote their products. Hundreds of examples can be found on the NetVet Commercial Resources Web page (http://nervet.wustl.edu/commerce.htm). Everything from rodent vendors and pharmaceutical companies to animal caging manufacturers and feed companies are now online. Accessing useful information from these companies is often just a click away, and several are engaging in direct online commerce.

The most popular part of the NetVet server is its animal species pages collected under the banner known as the Electronic Zoo (http://netvet.wustl.edu/ssi.htm). Major groups of domestic, companion, and laboratory animal species are categorized in broad fashion. Browsing any one of the individual species pages will provide a tremendous number of links to other related sites on the Web. Although no particular effort has been made to separate scientific from fun sites on this particular series of pages, many of those related to biomedical research have been listed separately under the NetVet Comparative Medicine page (http://netvet. wustl.edu/compmed.htm). There one can quickly locate useful information sites on animal alternatives such as The Johns Hopkins University's Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (http://www.sphjhu.edu/~caat/) or the Norwegian Reference Centre for Laboratory Animal Science & Alternatives (http://oslovet.veths.no/). Several departmental home pages are listed as well as links to species resources like the Peromyscus Genetic Stock Center (http://stkctr.biol.sc.edu/), Jackson Laboratory (http://wwwjax.org/), or Primate Info Net (http://www.primate.wisc.edu/pin/). Other resources such as the Microinjection Workshop (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/TheBroons/) or Vermont SIRI (http://hazard.com/) provide central reference points for in- formation on topics like transgenic animals or occupational health and safety.

Comparative medicine is only one of the veterinary specialties listed under the NetVet Veterinary Specialty page (http://netvet.wustl.edu/vspecial.htm). Practically every other facet of the veterinary profession is represented from this Web location. This would be a good starting place for information related to animal behavior, pharmacology, surgery, or nutrition or to learn more about veterinary ethics or informatics. A number of other general-purpose veterinary directories, although perhaps none with quite the scope of NetVet, can be found on the Veterinary Directory page (http://netvet.wustl.edu/vetdir.htm) along with home pages for a variety of veterinary hospitals and practices and individual veterinarians.

If a veterinary- or animal-related topic cannot be located on the NetVet server itself, a handy search page is available on the site (http://netvet.wustl.edu/search.htm). This includes subsections that search the NetVet site, providing pointers to other veterinary search engines as well as the major Internet search engines such as AltaVista and InfoSeek.

The WWW medium is in its infancy. We are privileged to live in the time of its birth and growth. The Web's distributed nature ensures that we all can be both consumers and providers of information relevant to our professional and personal lives. Perhaps the ultimate privilege is that each of us has the opportunity to nurture its continuing development, collective content, and knowledge base. Experience with the NetVet and Electronic Zoo servers suggests that the topics relevant to veterinary medicine and animal species will certainly be among the most popular.

¹ Abbreviations used in this article: AALAS, American Association for Laboratory Animal Science; AVMA, American Veterinary Medical Association; IACUC, institutional cre and use committee; ILAR, Institute for Laboratory Animal Research; NIH, National Institutes of Health; Web or WWW, World Wide Web.

REFERENCE

Boschert KR, James H, editors. 1998. NetVet: Mosby's Veterinary Guide to the Internet. St. Louis: Mosby-Yearbook, Inc.