In terms of ergonomics, iPad is a very high-profile device, targeted at complying with the ultimate requirements of its users.
As regards our case, the main advantage of iPad is that it allows to stay online either via 3G or WiFi. That means that during both the emergency and the ordinary period veterinary stations in the countryside can stay connected with the government. Perhaps, using iPad could have prevented the spreading of foot-and-mouth disease, which caused UK suffer 16bn$ loss in 2001 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_United_Kingdom_foot-and-mouth_outbreak)
Furthermore, staying online will allow too keep up with the demands of the customers through 24h online veterinary consultation. Thus it may improve the component of customer relations in business value chain model, hence developing veterinary business. Thus, user is able to monitor the information concerning all ‘Competetive forces’ by Michael Porter and obtain an updated information on all the components of the ‘business value chain model’ (ref.)
This was recently backed up by Google docs support (http://www.rian.ru/technology/20100921/277751060.html)

One of the main advantages of iPad is that it, like all other Apple products, has strong software backup. Concerning veterinary, some electronic medicine and veterinary dictionaries can be downloaded. All electronic veterinary and medicine literature is available through the promt search engine.
Also there are some electronic web projects that can be integrated with the device like:
‘The O3-Vet project: A veterinary electronic patient record based on the web technology and the ADT-IHE actor for veterinary hospitals’(http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1265650)
‘EVE (Electronic Veterinary Experience) is the first online claims processing service for pet insurance available to participating veterinary clinics and their customers in North America. EVE streamlines the filing and payment of eligible claims made under the 24PetWatch Pet Insurance