In Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences

Animal classification needs vary by use and application. The Linnaean taxonomy is an important animal classification scheme but does not portray key animal identifying information like sex, age group, physiologic stage, living environment and role in production systems such as farms. Ontologies are created and used for defining, organizing and classifying information in a domain to enable learning and sharing of information. This work develops an ontology of animal classes that form the basis for communication of animal identifying information among animal managers, medical professionals caring for animals and biomedical researchers involved in disciplines as diverse as wildlife ecology and dairy science. The Animals in Context Ontology (ACO) was created from an extension and subset o