There are 11 agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of which 5 are related to veterinary public health: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Center for Disease Control (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), … Continue reading
Public health is the science of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private communities, and individuals (https://www.cdcfoundation.org/what-public-health). There are 17 agencies within the United States Department … Continue reading
Two commonly discussed measures of observational error are accuracy and precision. Accuracy refers to how close measurements are to the true or accepted value whereas precision refers to how close measurements are to each other. The two terms tend to … Continue reading
Make a recommendation After defining and observing the problem, a working diagnosis can be established. Based on the diagnosis, recommendations should be given to the producer to mediate or mitigate potential causes of the disease. If an infectious process is … Continue reading
What is a diagnostic investigation? A diagnostic investigation is the systematic application of epidemiology and clinical testing to determine the cause(s) of a disease or symptom. Diagnostic investigations are performed when there is a problem resulting in morbidity, mortality, or … Continue reading
Management practices that reduce the opportunities for infectious agents to gain access to a production unit is commonly referred to as biosecurity. Biosecurity is an aspect of disease prevention with the goal of preventing the introduction of disease agents which … Continue reading
All In/ All Out Managment Systems Atrophic rhinitis is a disease in swine that developed in the US in the 1940s because of the expansion and intensification of swine production. Atrophic rhinitis is a multifactorial disease caused by toxigenic strains … Continue reading
Population characteristics: Prevalence Sometimes more than one diagnostic test is conducted to increase overall test sensitivity or specificity. For example, disease eradication programs may necessitate multiple diagnostic tests to ensure that an animal is not infected or diseased (a false-negative … Continue reading
Disease Probability Probability is the chance that some event will happen. With disease, probability can be thought of as out a group of individuals exposed to a disease, how many will become infected. Diagnostic tests do not always appropriately classify … Continue reading
Population characteristics: Prevalence Prevalence is an estimation of an individual’s risk of having a disease at a specific point in time. Apparent prevalence, or the proportion of test-positive individuals at a specific point in time, is found after performing a … Continue reading
Principles of Diagnostic Testing Series Part 2 – Test Characteristics: Infectious Disease Antigen and Antibody Testing Some of the most common diagnostic tests for infectious diseases detect either antigens or antibodies. An antigen is a foreign substance that elicits an … Continue reading
Principles of Diagnostic Testing Series Part 1 – Test Characteristics: Sensitivity and Specificity The performance characteristics of a diagnostic test influence the circumstances that the test is most useful and how the results might be interpreted. Ideally, every diagnostic test … Continue reading
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