Pub. date: 2008 | Online Pub. Date: November 27, 2007 | DOI: 10.4135/9781412953948 | Print ISBN: 9781412928168 | Online ISBN: 9781412953948| Publisher:SAGE Publications, Inc.About this encyclopedia
Charlotte H. Edinboro
Veterinary epidemiology is a specialized area within veterinary medicine that was historically termed epizootiology until the mid-1990s. Like human epidemiology, it involves identifying risk factors for diseases, characterizing outbreaks, quantifying incidence and prevalence, describing the natural history of disease, developing disease control and prevention programs, and assessing the effectiveness of these programs. Veterinary epidemiologists participate in these activities in both human and animal populations when disease agents are zoonotic (infectious and capable of spreading between animals and people), although the potential impacts of environmental agents (σuch as pesticides) on animal and human health and the challenges of cancer and of chronic diseases are also topics for investigation. Veterinarians are trained in medicines of all species, including primates, and so are often involved in identifying disease risks to humans after being alerted to health issues in animals. This can be used in health surveillance, with animals acting as sentinels of human ...