Epidemiology

Theoretical teaching 1st -3rd hour • Principles of Epidemiology. Population dynamics and the importance of the population perspective in disease prevention and treatment. Epidemiology and classical Veterinary Science approaches. Historical review of the first epidemiological investigations 4th – 5th hour • Characteristics of animal populations. Measuring the incidence of disease. Prevalence and measures of association and effect. 6th -9th hour • Descriptive Epidemiology. Description of diseases in animal populations (spatial and/or temporal). Standardization of disease rates. Surveillance systems. Risk analysis for movement of animals and/or animal products 10th -11th hour • Causation. The “component cause” approach and its role in disease prevention and treatment in animal populations 12th hour • Sampling of animal populations. 13th-14th hour • Questionnaire design. 15th-16th hour • Diagnostic tests: Characteristics and applications in epidemiological studies and clinical practice. 17th-18th hour • Outbreak investigation. 19th hour • Analytical studies. Causation and association in epidemiological studies. 20th hour • Analytical studies. Cross-sectional and cohort studies. 21th hour • Case control studies and experimental studies. 22th-23th hour • Bias in analytical studies: selection bias, information bias, confounding and interaction. Adjustment for confounding. 24th hour • Monitoring the productivity and hygiene of farmed animals. Theoretical epidemiology Practical training 1st hour • Examination and interpretation of descriptive epidemiological findings (description of diseases in populations in terms of time, manner of person). Epidemiological investigation based on real and hypothetical outbreaks. 2nd -3rd hour • Calculation, interpretation and evaluation of measured of disease frequency in animal populations 4th hour • Direct and indirect standardization of disease rates. 5th hour •Investigation of disease causation. 6th hour • Investigation of disease outbreaks. 7th hour • Calculation and interpretation of diagnostic properties - sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value 8th-9th hour • Design of epidemiological studies and evaluation of their results. Critical review of published epidemiological studies 10th-12th hour • Hand on training with software for epidemiological studies. Questionnaire design, completion and management for epidemiological studies using EPI-INFO. Design and analysis of data from studies ton proof of disease freedom in animal populations using FREECALC. Sample size calculation for epidemiological studies using WINPEPI.

19-11-2020