Applications of bioinformatics in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of hereditary, infectious, and metabolic diseases in small animals: A narrative review

Small animal medicine has undergone a fundamental transformation from a symptom-based approach to precision medicine driven by molecular data over the last decade. Bioinformatics, as a bridge between computational biology and genomic big data, plays a pivotal role in this transformation. This narrative review aimed to examine current applications and outline future prospects of bioinformatics in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of small-animal diseases. This review was based on a systematic search of the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases using keywords related to bioinformatics, genomics, small animals, and precision medicine from ۲۰۱۵ to ۲۰۲۵. Original and review articles on the application of bioinformatics tools to hereditary, infectious, and metabolic diseases in dogs and cats were selected and analyzed narratively. Bioinformatics applications can be categorized into three main areas: (۱) diagnosis of hereditary diseases using databases of pathogenic variants (such as OMIA and Canine-FEIPE) and pathogenicity prediction tools for diseases such as cardiomyopathy and nephrolithiasis. (۲) detection of antibiotic-resistant strains and molecular epidemiology of infectious pathogens (such as Leptospira and canine parvovirus) through metagenomics and computational phylogenetics. (۳) prediction of drug response in metabolic diseases, especially diabetes mellitus and idiopathic epilepsy, using pharmacogenomics. However, challenges such as the lack of dedicated databases for indigenous Iranian small livestock breeds and the translation gap between bioinformatics findings and real-world clinical applications remain. Bioinformatics is changing the paradigm of small-animal medicine from a reactive to a predictive and personalized approach. The future of this field is moving towards integrating artificial intelligence with multi-omics data (genome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome) and developing automated interpretation tools for gene variants. Investment in dedicated databases and training for human resources specialized in veterinary bioinformatics is an inevitable requirement to enter the era of precision medicine in small animal populations.

کلیدواژه ها:

Bioinformatics ، Precision medicine ، Small animals ، Veterinary genomics ، Canine and feline hereditary diseases