How we build the corpus
Sources, evidence grades, and why Lares sometimes says "I don't know."
When a veterinarian asks Lares about a meloxicam dose or an equine deworming protocol, what happens in the background is not an internet search. It is a query against a corpus built from selected, graded, and dated sources: professional guidelines, authorised product SPCs, European and Romanian regulations, and peer-recognised veterinary reference handbooks.
Corpus
Sources matter more than the model.
Lares uses a language model to compose answers — but the value comes from what the model has access to. A good model with weak sources produces confidently wrong answers. A modest model with grade-A sources produces cited, verifiable answers. Grade-A sources in the Lares corpus include WSAVA, ESCCAP, AAHA, and AAEP guidelines; EMA and VMD SPCs; EU Regulation 2019/6 and ANSVSA guidance. Grade-B sources — Plumb's Veterinary Drug Handbook, the BSAVA Small Animal Formulary — carry verifiable editorial provenance. Grade-C sources (reviews, meta-analyses) are reference points, never the sole anchor for a numeric claim.
Currency
Date matters as much as source.
A guideline from 2016 is not necessarily the guideline from 2024. Lares records the publication or revision date of every source. Grade-A sources older than five years are explicitly flagged as "requires reverification." We do not present them as current guidance without that notice. Transparency about limits is part of the product.
Honesty
Why we say "I don't know."
Explicit refusal is a feature, not a bug. When the corpus contains no citable source for a query, the system refuses to answer — it does not estimate, interpolate, or freely synthesise. The response is: "The available guidelines do not cover this question." That is sometimes uncomfortable. But the alternative — a system that fills gaps with linguistic probabilities — is not a reference tool. It is a risk instrument. Veterinary medicine works with animals, active substances, and owners who trust the clinician's decision. A confidently invented answer is more dangerous than an honest refusal.
What this means in practice
Lares does not interpret your clinical case. It does not prescribe. It does not replace the clinician's judgement. It surfaces what guidelines say, with the source next to the claim, one click away. The clinical decision stays with the clinician — as it always has. This is not a limitation we intend to lift. It is the deliberate position of a tool that respects the profession it serves.
Per scientiam, vigilamus.
Through knowledge, we keep watch.
We watch. We protect. We help.