Keywords
How to Cite
Abstract
Veterinarians, among other health professionals, are considered health professionals at high risk of exposure to and contraction of COVID-19. The main objective of this study is to assess changes in the clinical practices of veterinarians during the COVID-19 pandemic around prophylactic and biosafety measures, as well as to evaluate changes in workload and cost-benefit ratio. An online questionnaire was sent to veterinary professionals from July 2020 to July 2021 using Google Forms. A total of 1134 veterinarians answered the questionnaire on clinical experiences and biosafety practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Veterinarians changed their routine clinical practices, as there was a reduction in working hours, and applied new patient approaches and advice to their owners, as well as restricting the number of people allowed inside. Biosafety measures were added in their workplaces, with an increase in the use of personal protective equipment. COVID-19 tests were administered at least once in 19.0%, and more than once in 9.5% of the respondents. Flu symptoms were present in 23.8% of the respondents, and 31.0% of the veterinarians attended to COVID-19 positive pet owners. Therefore, most veterinarians altered their routine practices, and some were exposed to sources of COVID-19 infection.
References
Cui, J., Li, F., & Shi, Z. L. (2019). Origin and evolution of pathogenic coronaviruses. Nature Reviews. Microbiology, 17(3), 181-192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41579-018-0118-9. PMid:30531947.
Decaro, N., Martella, V., Saif, L. J., & Buonavoglia, C. (2020). COVID-19 from veterinary medicine and one health perspectives: what animal coronaviruses have taught us. Research in Veterinary Science, 131, 21-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rvsc.2020.04.009. PMid:32278960.
Ferri, M., & Lloyd-Evans, M. (2021). The contribution of veterinary public health to the management of the COVID-19 pandemic from a One Health perspective. One Health, 12, 100230. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.onehlt.2021.100230. PMid:33681446.
Gortázar, C., & Fuente, J. (2020). COVID-19 is likely to impact animal health. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 180, 105030. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2020.105030. PMid:32447153.
Guo, H., Zhou, Y., Liu, X., & Tan, J. (2020). The impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the utilization of emergency dental services. Journal of Dental Sciences, 15(4), 564-567. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jds.2020.02.002. PMid:32296495.
Hosie, M. J., Hofmann-Lehmann, R., Hartmann, K., Egberink, H., Truyen, U., Addie, D. D., Belák, S., Boucraut-Baralon, C., Frymus, T., Lloret, A., Lutz, H., Marsilio, F., Pennisi, M. G., Tasker, S., Thiry, E., & Möstl, K. (2021). Anthropogenic infection of cats during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Viruses, 13(2), 185. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v13020185.PMid:33530620.
Kamate, S. K., Sharma, S., Thakar, S., Srivastava, D., Sengupta, K., Hadi, A. J., Chaudhary, A., Joshi, R., & Dhanker, K. (2020). Assessing knowledge, attitudes and practices of dental practitioners regarding the COVID-19 pandemic: a multinational study. Dental and Medical Problems, 57(1), 11-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.17219/dmp/119743.PMid:32307930.
Kogan, L. R., Erdman, P., Bussolari, C., Currin-McCulloch, J., & Packman, W. (2021). The initial months of COVID-19: dog owners’ veterinary-related concerns. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 8, 629121. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.629121. PMid:33604366.
Li, R., Qiao, S., & Zhang, G. (2020). Analysis of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) from different species sheds some light on cross-species receptor usage of a novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV. The Journal of Infection, 80(4), 469-496. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2020.02.013. PMid:32092392.
Machado, L. C., Santos, S. I. P., Mariano Jr, C. G., Coutinho, M. P., Guaraná, J. B., Fantinato-Neto, P., & Ambrósio, C. E. (2022). Delivery anatomy kits help to keep practical veterinary classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anatomia, Histologia, Embryologia. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ahe.12804. PMid:35403733.
Martina, B. E., Haagmans, B. L., Kuiken, T., Fouchier, R. A., Rimmelzwaan, G. F., Van Amerongen, G., Peiris, J. S., Lim, W., & Osterhaus, A. D. (2003). Virology: SARS virus infection of cats and ferrets. Nature, 425(6961), 915. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/425915a. PMid:14586458.
Perlman, S. (2020). Another decade, another coronavirus. The New England Journal of Medicine, 382(8), 760-762. http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMe2001126. PMid:31978944.
R Development Core Team. (2020). A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org/
Ritchie, H., Mathieu, E., Rodés-Guirao, L., Appel, C., Giattino, C., Ortiz-Ospina, E., Hasell, J., Macdonald, B., Beltekian, E., & Roser, M. (2020). Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19). OurWorldInData.org. https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
Rossato, M. D. S., Gregorio, D., de Almeida-Pedrin, R. R., Maia, L. P., Poli, R. C., Berger, S. B., & Fernandes, T. M. F. (2021). Evaluation of dental practices changes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. Evaluation & the Health Professions, 44(2), 192-197. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0163278721994902. PMid:33593112.
Topolovec-Vranic, J., & Natarajan, K. (2016). The use of social media in recruitment for medical research studies: a scoping review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 18(11), e286. http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.5698.PMid:27821383.
Wan, Y., Shang, J., Graham, R., Baric, R. S., & Li, F. (2020). Receptor recognition by the novel coronavirus from Wuhan: an analysis based on decade-long structural studies of SARS Coronavirus. Journal of Virology, 94(7), e00127-e20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JVI.00127-20. PMid:31996437.
Wayne, A. S., & Rozanski, E. A. (2020). Cataloguing the response by emergency veterinary hospitals during the COVID‐19 pandemic via weekly surveys. Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care, 30(4), 493-497. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/vec.12974. PMid:32598096.
Weller, K. (2015). Accepting the challenges of social media research. Online Information Review, 39(3), 281-289. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/OIR-03-2015-0069.
Yoo, H. S., & Yoo, D. (2020). COVID-19 and veterinarians for one health, zoonotic- and reverse-zoonotic transmissions. Journal of Veterinary Science, 21(3), e51. http://dx.doi.org/10.4142/jvs.2020.21.e51 PMid:32476324.
Yuan, N., Yang, W, Lu, J., & Lv, Z. (2021). Investigation of adverse reactions in healthcare personnel working in Level 3 barrier protection PPE to treat COVID-19. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 97(1148), 351-354. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/postgradmedj-2020-137854. PMid:32554543.
Zhu, N., Zhang, D., Wang, W., Li, X., Yang, B., Song, J., Zhao, X., Huang, B., Shi, W., Lu, R., Niu, P., Zhan, F., Ma, X., Wang, D., Xu, W., Wu, G., Gao, G. F., & Tan, W. (2020). A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. The New England Journal of Medicine, 382(8), 727-733. http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2001017. PMid:31978945.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2022 José Victor Pronievicz Barreto, Elis Lorenzetti, Simone Fernanda Nedel Pertile, Nicolas Peralta Bertasso, Rafaela Machado dos Santos, Andressa de Melo Jardim, Daniella Aparecida Godoi Kemper, Marilice Zundt, Fabíola Cristine de Almeida Rego