title: Challenges Encountered During the Veterinary Disaster Response: An Example from Chile.
abstract: Large-scale disasters have immeasurable effects on human and animal communities. Evaluating and reporting on the response successes and difficulties encountered serves to improve existing preparedness documents and provide support to those in the process of developing plans. Although the majority of disasters occur in low and middle income nations, less than 1% of the disaster literature originates from these countries. This report describes a response to a disease outbreak in domestic dogs in Dichato, Chile following the 2010 earthquake/tsunami. With no national plan coordinating the companion animal response, there was a chaotic approach among animal welfare organizations towards rescue, diagnosis, treatment and record-keeping. Similar to the medical response following the 1985 earthquake near Santiago, we experienced problems within our own teams in maintenance of data integrity and protocol compliance. Loss of infrastructure added complications with transportation, communications and acquisition of supplies. Similar challenges likely occur in most disasters, but can be reduced through pro-active planning at national and local levels. There is sufficient information to support the human and animal welfare benefits of including companion animals in national planning, and lessons learned through this and other experiences can assist planners in the development of comprehensive and locally relevant contingency plans.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pathway Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH16 4SB, UK. elena@vetswithoutborders.ca.|Latin America Branch, Veterinarians Without Borders (Veterinarios Sin Fronteras) Canada, Pasaje Los Arrayanes 333, Valdivia, Chile. elena@vetswithoutborders.ca.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Garde
authors.affiliation: Latin America Branch, Veterinarians Without Borders (Veterinarios Sin Fronteras) Canada, Pasaje Los Arrayanes 333, Valdivia, Chile. guillermo@vetswithoutborders.ca.
authors.forename: Guillermo Enrique
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Medicina Preventiva Veterinaria, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad Austral de Chile, Casilla 567, Valdivia, Chile. gerardo.acosta@uach.cl.
authors.forename: Gerardo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Acosta-Jamett
authors.affiliation: The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH25 9RG, UK. mark.bronsvoort@roslin.ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Barend Mark
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Bronsvoort
keywords: companion animals; contingency planning; disaster preparedness; disaster research; disaster response; earthquake; free-roaming dogs; natural disaster; tsunami