Chomel B
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis 95616.
Rev Epidemiol Sante Publique. 1991;39(5):477-86.
The author describes the specifics of veterinary epidemiology, in particular its domain and objectives. The large diversity of data sources are partly limited by the lack of standardized nomenclature and registries in many animal species. Even if veterinary epidemiology benefits from methods developed in the last thirty years in human epidemiology, it differs from human epidemiology by: the broad spectrum of animal species and its differences in longevity, pathology and genetics, the extend of control measures available and their direct effect on the epidemiology of the diseases, the priority of cost efficacy of disease control and epidemiological surveillance. The future of veterinary epidemiology lays in new areas, such as herd management and economics, genetic selection and molecular biochemistry, and geriatric epidemiology in pets.
作者描述了兽医流行病学的具体情况，尤其是其领域和目标。由于许多动物物种缺乏标准化的命名法和登记系统，数据来源的巨大多样性受到了一定限制。尽管兽医流行病学受益于过去三十年人类流行病学所开发的方法，但它与人类流行病学的不同之处在于：动物物种范围广泛，且在寿命、病理学和遗传学方面存在差异；可用控制措施的范围及其对疾病流行病学的直接影响；疾病控制和流行病学监测的成本效益优先级。兽医流行病学的未来在于新的领域，如畜群管理与经济学、基因选择与分子生物化学以及宠物老年病流行病学。
