May 17, 2007 [posted]

Veterinary Search Added to PubMed® Special Queries

The National Library of Medicine® (NLM) Special Queries page now includes a link to a new subject page for veterinary and animal health literature. Areas of coverage include:

veterinary medicine
animal models
alternatives to animal testing
laboratory animals
animal welfare
animal hospitals
pets or companion animals
domestic and farm animals
wildlife

exotic animals
apiculture
aquaculture
general zoonoses
animal behavior and psychology
animal nutrition
animal diseases
animal toxicology and parasitology

The MEDLINE® /PubMed® Search and Veterinary Information Resources page offers a comprehensive PubMed search including subject terms and veterinary journal titles. The strategy uses MeSH® headings to retrieve indexed citations, plus title words to obtain OLDMEDLINE and unindexed citations. Historical citations from PubMed Central® may also be retrieved. The oldest article citation found is:

Hulke JW.
On the Retina of Amphibia and Reptiles.
J Anat Physiol. 1867;1(1):94-378.21. No abstract available.
PMID: 17230711 [PubMed]

This search retrieves veterinary literature in all languages. The veterinary journal titles include approximately 171 core veterinary titles and 70 titles with peripheral subject coverage or limited indexed citations. The search currently retrieves over 1.4 million PubMed citations. A link to the search strategy is provided on the new page.

The new page also provides links to other veterinary resources including free databases, organizations, and consumer health topics in MedlinePlus®. Specific zoonotic diseases like cat scratch fever and bird flu can be found in the consumer health area, but not in the veterinary search strategy unless it involves the health of the animal.

We would like to thank the veterinary librarians Jill Crawley-Low, from the Veterinary Medicine Library, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada and Heather K. Moberly, from the Willam E. Brock Memorial Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma for their valuable consultation. Thanks also to Carol Krueger, NLM staff, and the National Library of Agriculture staff for their additional input.

For more information on the Special Queries Resource in PubMed, see the article New Special Queries Resource in PubMed®. NLM TechBull. 2005 Mar-Apr;(343):e1.

By Ron Gordner
Reference and Web Services
and
Carolyn Willard
Reference and Web Services

Gordner R, Willard C. Veterinary Search Added to PubMed® Special Queries. NLM Tech Bull. 2007 May-Jun; (356):e3.