Epidemiology of Epidemics (VETS90086)

Animal disease epidemics have many unique epidemiological features, most obviously a potential for a high rate of transmission in fully susceptible populations. This expresses itself as an “epidemic curve” where the number of reported cases increases rapidly until control measures become effective, followed by a gradual decline. Thus animal disease managers are faced with a series of common problems when dealing with epidemics, including developing and/or interpreting epidemic models, implementing field procedures to diagnostic test systems for rapid diagnosis and undertaking freedom from disease surveys.

This subject will use online lecture notes and study materials to provide students with an overview of the epidemiology of animal disease epidemics, which will be reinforced with detailed studies of epidemics in later subjects in Emergency Animal Diseases (VETS90087, VETS90088, VETS90089, VETS90090).