Centre for veterinary disaster medicine - animal health, animal welfare and safe food

Wars and peacetime crises, as well as disasters, can cause damage to both people and animals through, for example, fires, radioactivity, explosions and floods. The injuries can be acute or have long-term health effects, and the number of people affected varies depending on geography and the nature of the event. Events with many injured people are complex and involve several challenges. In these situations, expertise in animal disaster medicine is crucial to reduce suffering, ensure animal welfare, contribute to food security and support other important societal functions. In human medicine, there are currently seven knowledge centres for disaster medicine, which are run on behalf of the National Board of Health and Welfare. However, there is no equivalent on the veterinary side.

Animals have an important role in society in peacetime as well as in times of crisis and war. Production animals are an essential resource for Sweden's food supply. The ability to maintain good animal health is central to maintaining production capacity. Service animals within the Armed Forces, the Police Authority and the Swedish Customs are also a qualified and unique resource that supports several important societal functions. Furthermore, service animals such as guide dogs support people with special medical needs and pets play an important role in the will to defend themselves, by contributing to people's well-being and endurance in times of unrest.

Within the framework of the project, we intend to build up a centre for veterinary disaster medicine (CVK) that gathers knowledge to ensure animal health, animal welfare and food safety in crisis and in heightened alert. Examples include climate-related disasters, accidents involving the spread of chemical, biological or radio nuclear agents, or other events that require mass damage management or require large-scale evacuation of animals. The centre will also build up capacity around issues related to disaster medicine management as well as training and exercise activities. Secure, fast and efficient communication between authorities and other organisations needs to be evaluated to function in the best way. The responsibility for CVK will be shared between SVA and SLU.

The project is intersectoral and intended to create a stable bridge between, primarily the emergency sectors: Food Supply ↔
Health, Welfare and Social Care. In this perspective, the project is about learning from and benefiting from, among other things, human medicine knowledge centres for disaster medicine. The aim is for KMC animals to absorb the necessary organisational and medical experience from the human side, which will provide a rapid increase in capability that is difficult to achieve with normal work in the emergency sectors.

By supporting socially important and totally important animal care, the project contributes to increased ability to produce animal food while maintaining a high level of animal welfare and securing access to service and service animals in peacetime crises as well as heightened preparedness and then ultimately war. Furthermore, the Disaster Medical Center for Animals also strengthens the ability to take care of sports and companion animals both in terms of animal health and animal welfare in general, which contributes to man's will and ability to deal with war and crisis situations.