Veterinary science rapidly regained its lost status, and its subsequent development largely parallels that of modern medicine. The preventive and control measures used in veterinary science are of vital economic importance to the livestock industry. Such common animal diseases as mastitis, brucellosis, swine fever, erysipelas, anthrax, and leptospirosis can cause major losses among stock animals and must be controlled or prevented by veterinarians. Vaccination and immunization, sanitation measures, and the rigid segregation, or quarantine, of sick animals are important tools used to combat the spread of infectious diseases such as anthrax, bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis, canine distemper, and rabies. The clinical subjects of study can be broadly divided into internal medicine, surgery, preventive medicine, and clinical practice.
Internal medicine includes the diagnosis and treatment of diseases as they affect animals.
Preventive medicine and public health concern the broader aspects of disease prevention and control, especially of those diseases transmissible between animals and humans or affecting human welfare. Surgery includes wound treatment, fracture repair, the excision of body parts, and the related techniques of radiology, anesthesiology, obstetrics, treatment of lameness, and so on. In most veterinary schools, a clinic is operated to enable students to observe and assist with actual cases of disease or other conditions requiring attention. In both medical and surgical treatment, the same techniques are used as in medical practice on humans. Many veterinarians specialize either in the care of small animals, i.e., pets, or in the care of livestock.