Survival and dispersal of a defined cohort of Irish cattle

An understanding of livestock movement is critical to effective disease prevention, control and prediction. However, livestock movement in Ireland has not yet been quantified. This study has sought to define the survival and dispersal of a defined cohort of cattle born in Co. Kerry during 2000. The cohort was observed for a maximum of four years, from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2004. Beef and dairy animals moved an average 1.31 and 0.83 times, respectively. At study end, 18.8% of the beef animals remained alive on Irish farms, including 6.7% at the farm-of-birth, compared with 48.6% and 27.7% for dairy animals respectively. Beef animals werae dispersed to all Irish counties, but mainly to Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Galway. Dairy animals mainly moved to Cork, Limerick, and Tipperary, with less animals going to Galway, Meath and Kilkenny. The four-year survival probability was 0.07 (male beef animals), 0.25 (male dairy), 0.38 (female beef), and 0.72 (female dairy). Although there was considerable dispersal, the number of moves per animal was less than expected

Richtlijnen voor de bepaling van de prevalentie van Salmonella bij landbouwhuisdieren

Salmonella-kiemen veroorzaken wereldwijd acute gastro-intestinale infecties bij de mens. Aangezien landbouwhuisdieren een van de belangrijkste bronnen zijn van Salmonella-kiemen is interventie vooral gericht op het terugdringen van deze kiem bij landbouwhuisdieren. Voor dit doel is het noodzakelijk informatie te hebben over de prevalentie van Salmonella bij groepen landbouwhuisdieren. Het rapport bevat richtlijnen hoe op statistische wijze deze informatie kan worden verkregen. In hoofdstuk 1 bevat basisinformatie van algemeen statistische aard aangevuld met eenvoudige en uitgewerkte voorbeelden. In hoofdstuk 2 wordt een praktijk geval uitgewerkt, gebaseerd op de nederlandse situatie en betreft de bepaling van de prevalentie van Salmonella bij koppels legpluimvee. Verder zijn voorbeelden gegeven waaruit blijkt dat de gevolgde procedure ook gebruikt kan worden voor andere populaties landbouwhuisdieren.Salmonella is world-wide acknowledge as a major cause of acute human gastro-enteritis. Since farm animal populations are the dominant sources of the organism and intervention strategies are almost directed on decreasing the contamination rate of animals, a more precise knowledge of the prevalences and trends of Salmonella in different farm animal populations is necessary. In this report statistical guidelines for sampling procedures for determination of the prevalence of Salmonella in farm animal populations are presented. In chapter 1 the general statistical aspects on determinations of prevalences are described. For all of these aspects simple and practical examples have been worked out. Chapter 2 presents a case study to monitor Salmonella serotypes in poultry laying flocks. It is demonstrated that with some adaptations, the same sampling procedures can be used to estimate the prevalence of Salmonella in other farm animal populations and some additional examples are presented.VH