Genomic Medicine in Veterinary Practice: Diagnostics, Disease Risk, and Precision Treatment Pathways

Abstract

Genomic medicine is rapidly transforming veterinary practice across companion animals, livestock, and increasingly wildlife. Advances in next-generation sequencing, annotated reference genomes, and species-specific variant databases now permit veterinarians to integrate genomic evidence directly into diagnosis, disease-risk assessment, and therapeutic decision-making. Genomic diagnostics have progressed from single-gene tests to whole-genome and transcriptomic profiling for inherited disorders and neoplastic diseases, especially in canine and feline oncology, where tumor sequencing and liquid-biopsy-based assays refine tumor classification, prognostication, and targeted drug selection. Comparative oncology research demonstrates that many canine and feline cancers share conserved molecular pathways with human tumors, enabling cross-species therapeutic translation and off-label use of molecularly targeted agents. In livestock, genomic selection programmers incorporating SNP arrays, GWAS markers, and multi-omics biomarkers have improved resistance to infectious, metabolic, and production-related diseases, supporting herd health, productivity, and long-term sustainability. Disease-risk stratification is expanding through germline variant profiling and early experimental work on polygenic risk scores adapted to breed-structured populations. These tools promise earlier screening, customized preventive care, and more responsible breeding decisions, although challenges remain regarding annotation gaps, breed bias, variant interpretation, and ethical concerns over genetic diversity. Rising pharmacogenomics research across companion and food-producing animals also highlights genetic influences on drug metabolism, therapeutic failure, and adverse reactions, offering pathways to personalized dosing and safer prescribing. Future directions point toward an integrated multi-omics ecosystem that combines genomics, transcriptomic, metabolomics, microbiome data, and AI-driven analytics to generate holistic biological models of disease. Portable sequencing, field-based genomics, and wildlife applications anchor genomic medicine within the One Health framework, reinforcing links between animal, human, and ecosystem health. Despite exciting progress, practical limitations persist, including high testing costs, limited regulatory oversight, uneven access in low-resource regions, and the need for practitioner training and ethical guidelines. Keywords: Veterinary genomics, precision medicine, tumor genomics, inherited diseases, polygenic risk scores.