Interaction between veterinary medicine and nanotechnology; the present and the near future: A Review
Abstract
Judging from the developments already recorded, veterinary medicine can benefit considerably by nanotechnology. Administration of drug treatment or vaccines to free ranging farm, or wild animals can be simplified by nano -scale devices or material that will release the active ingredient, without immediate human intervention. In addition to facilitating administration, nanotechnology has already provided new drug and vaccine candidates with improved characteristics and performance. Furthermore, direct and inexpensive detection of microbial pathogens or of specific disease indicators, using functionalized nanoparticles conjugated to DNA and/or pep tide probes, seems ideal for veterinary applications that in most cases must conform within a very strict context defined by cost and the availability of resources. Considering the strong potential of the interaction between the two fields of science, the aim of this article is to provide a concise description of the advances already recorded in nanotechnology, in terms of their potential application in veterinary medicine, in connection specifically to drug and vaccine delivery, and diagnosis of infectious diseases .
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Introduction
Science is divided by boundaries that are undoubtedly artificial and although useful in terms for example of classification o r education, they often prove obsolete. If one would seek an example of the latter, nanotechnology would constitute by all means one of the most ideal candidates: a scientific field with clear intra -disciplinary orientation, the extensions of which seems already to be limited only by fiction. In this respect, the use of applied nanotechnology in veterinary medicine cannot be viewed separately than that of human medicine, biology, bio -physics, bio -chemistry, analytical chemistry or bio - engineering, which demonstrates exactly the validity of the introducing sentences of this paragraph . However, one is obliged to consider the defining characteristics of each of the fields of science mentioned above in order to establish were and exactly how, nanotechnology would or could be used to further the existing state -of-the-art.
As opposed to human medicine in which the value of life usually renders high -cost applications consistent even with their routine use, in veterinary medicine this notion is defined largely by an unavoidable compromise between benefit and cost. Considering the strong potential of the interaction between the two fields of science, the aim of this article is to provide a concise description of the advances already recorded in nanotechnology, in terms of their potential application in veterinary medicine, in connection specifically to drug and vaccine delivery, and diagnosis of infectious diseases.
Conclusion
Judging from the developments already recorded, veterinary medicine can benefit considerably by nanotechnology. Administration of drug treatment or vaccines to free ranging farm, or wild animals can be simplified by nano -scale devices or material that will release the active ingredient, without immediate human intervention. In addition to facilitating administration, nanotechnology has already provided new drug and vaccine candidates with improved characteristic s and performance. Furthermore, direct and inexpensive detection of microbial pathogens or of specific disease indicators, using functionalized nanoparticles conjugated to DNA and/or peptide probes, seems ideal for veterinary applications that in most cases must conform within a very strict context defined by cost and the availability of resources. In this respect, it is justified to anticipate that nanotechnology may facilitate the application in practice of many of the research advances already made in various fields of veterinary medicine, to the benefit of animal and public health.