Veterinary Epidemiology (eBook)

Front Cover 1
Veterinary Epidemiology 2
Copyright Page 3
Table of Contents 6
Preface 4
Chapter 1. The development of veterinary medicine 10
Historical perspective 10
Contemporary veterinary medicine 15
Causality 17
New control strategies 17
Chapter 2. The scope of epidemiology 20
The uses of epidemiology 20
Types of epidemiological investigation 23
Components of epidemiology 23
Is epidemiology a science? 26
Further reading 28
Chapter 3. Some general epidemiological concepts 29
The cause of disease 31
Further reading 38
Chapter 4. Describing disease occurrence 39
The structure of animal populations 39
Measures of disease occurrence 40
Mapping 49
Further reading 54
Chapter 5. Determinants of disease 55
Host determinants 57
Agent determinants 61
Environmental determinants 65
Interaction 67
Further reading 71
Chapter 6. The transmission and maintenance of infection 72
Horizontal transmission 72
Vertical transmission 79
Maintenance of infection 81
Further reading 84
Chapter 7. The ecology of disease 85
Basic ecological concepts 85
Further reading 99
Chapter 8. Patterns of disease 100
Basic epidemic theory 100
Trends in the temporal distribution of disease 103
Trends in the spatial and temporal distribution of disease 109
Further reading 109
Chapter 9. The nature of data 110
Data elements 110
Representation of data: coding 116
Further reading 122
Chapter 10. Sources of data 123
Some general considerations 123
Sources of epidemiological data 124
Further reading 129
Chapter 11. Data storage and retrieval 130
Non-computerized recording techniques 131
Computerized recording techniques 134
Veterinary data bases 138
ANADIS 139
COSREEL 140
VMDP 140
Further reading 140
Chapter 12. Presenting numerical data 141
Some basic definitions 141
Some descriptive statistics 142
Statistical distributions 144
Displaying numerical data 146
Further reading 149
Chapter 13. Demonstrating association 150
Some basic techniques 150
Multivariate analysis 160
Statistical packages 160
Further reading 160
Chapter 14. Surveys 162
Surveys 164
Cluster sampling 164
Collecting information: questionnaires 168
Wording 172
Reliability 173
Validity 174
Further reading 174
Chapter 15. Observational studies 175
Further reading 183
Chapter 16. Serological epidemiology 184
Assaying antibodies 184
Serological estimations and comparisons in populations 187
Interpreting serological tests 188
Serum banks 193
Further reading 195
Chapter 17. Modelling 196
Types of model 196
Forecasting systems 197
Deterministic population models 198
Stochastic population models 202
Further veterinary applications of modelling 203
Further reading 207
Chapter 18. The economics of disease 208
Assessing the cost of disease 209
Cost-benefit analysis of disease control 211
Further reading 214
Chapter 19. Health and productivity schemes 215
Dairy health and productivity schemes 217
Pig health and productivity schemes 218
Sheep health and productivity schemes 220
Beef health and productivity schemes 222
Companion animal health schemes 222
Further reading 223
Chapter 20. The control of disease 224
Disease control and eradication 224
Eradication 224
Veterinary medicine towards the end of this century 232
Further reading 233
General reading 234
Appendices 236
Appendix I: Glossary of terms 238
Appendix II: Basic mathematical notation and terms 242
Appendix III: Student's t-distribution 244
Appendix IV: The x2-distribution 245
Appendix V: The correlation coefficient 246
Appendix VI: Technique of selecting a simple random sample 247
Appendix VII: Sample sizes 249
Appendix VIII: The probability of detecting a small number of cases in a population 256
Appendix IX: The probability of failure to detect cases in a population 258
Appendix X: The variance-ratio (F) distribution 259
References 261
Index 281