Ethicists' commentary on veterinary confidentiality
Ethical question of the month, September 2025
You are a seasoned large animal practitioner with longstanding relationships with clients in your community.
A cow with a laboratory-confirmed case of Staphylococcus aureus mastitis is sold from one client’s farm to another without disclosure to the buyer. Given that this is a chronic and contagious condition, you are feeling deeply conflicted about what to do with the information to which you are privy. You have dealt with similar scenarios in equine prepurchase situations but have been able to navigate those as they are dependent, to a certain extent, on opinion and the end use of the animal. In this case, laboratory results are irrefutable.
What do you do?
Clare Palmer, Peter Sandøe, & Dan Weary comment on this dilemma and you can read it here: Ethicists’ commentary on veterinary confidentiality