On-Line Literature Resources:

General Philosophy and Approaches:

FOCUS on Field Epidemiology (North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness)
http://www.sph.unc.edu/nccphp/focus/issuelist.htm

• Overview of Outbreak Investigations
• Embarking on an Outbreak Investigation
• Case Finding and Line Listing: A Guide for Investigators

Guidelines for the Investigation of Gastrointestinal Illness (human - Victoria, AU)
http://www.health.vic.gov.au/ideas/diseases/gas_ill_index.htm

Having Students as Integral Rather than Peripheral Participants in Production Medicine Investigations (DJ Sprecher, Michigan State)

Outbreak Investigation - pgs. 52-57 in  Veterinary Epidemiology - An Introduction (D Pfeiffer, U London)
http://www.vetschools.co.uk/EpiVetNet/epidivision/Pfeiffer/files/Epinotes.pdf

Outbreak Investigations—A Perspective    (AL Reingold, paper on human outbreak investigation in on-line CDC journal)
http://www.paho.org/english/dd/ais/EB_v21n2.pdf (Epidemiological Bulletin)

Principles of Epidemiology (Delaware Public Health)
http://www.state.de.us/dhss/dph/epidem.htm (dead link 6/04)

University of Wisconsin Food Animal Production Medicine (Cook, McGuirk, Nordlund, Oetzel, et al.)
http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dms/fapm/index.html

Forms and Information
http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dms/fapm/forms_info.htm

Specific Topics:

Dairy Nutrition, Metabolic Disease, Ruminal Acidosis:

• Nutrition - U Wisc Food Animal Production Medicine
  http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dms/fapm/fapmtools/nutrition.htm
• Feeding Program: Quality Control Checklist (R Grant, Nebraska)
  http://www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/dairy/g1394.htm
• Maximizing the Feed Management Program (TL Batchelder, Cornell)
  http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/tmplobs/doc68.pdf
• Troubleshooting Rations: What the Cows Have to Tell You (MB Hall, U Florida)
  (alternate URL http://www.ces.uga.edu/Agriculture/asdsvm/Dairyscience/rations.htm )

Lameness - Herd Investigation
http://www.cowdoc.net/pages/herd_investigation/herd_investigation.html

Minnesota Dept. Ag Dairy Diagnostic Program Dairy Toolbox (D Mold, A Whyte)
http://www.mda.state.mn.us/dairyfood/toolbox.pdf

The Role of the Lab in the Investigation of Herd Health Problems (P Rogers, B Earley, Grange Research Centre)
http://tnet.teagasc.ie/Grange%20Pages/dat/lab_int_use.htm

Abortion, perinatal and early postnatal Problems in Cows and/or Calves
http://tnet.teagasc.ie/Grange%20Pages/dat/perinatb.htm

Wisconsin Health Management Forms - Food Animal Production Medicine
http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dms/fapm/forms.htm

• Herd Goal Form (K Nordlund)
  http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dms/fapm/fapmtools/goal_form.htm
• Herd Nutrition History and Evaluation Form (Oetzel)
  http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dms/fapm/fapmtools/2nutr/nutrform.pdf
• Lameness
  http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dms/fapm/fapmtools/lameness.htm
• Milk Quality Investigation Check Sheet
  http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dms/fapm/fapmtools/milk_quality.htm
• Stalls
  http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dms/fapm/fapmtools/stalls.htm

My on-line materials:

• Guide for Herd Problem Investigations
• Student Guidelines for Written Recommendations

Miscellaneous Collected Stuff:

Located in the midst of working on a specific problem.

Swine:

Nutrition:

• Designing Feeding Programs for Natural and Organic Pork Production html
• General Nutrition Principles for Swine (K State pdf)
• Premix, Base Mix and Starter Diet Recommendations for Swine (K State MF2299 pdf)
• Evaluating Feed Components and Finished Feeds (K State MF2037, 2001 pdf)

Library Literature Resources:

Texts:

The following text is the single most useful guide to outbreak investigation. Block students should read the the two chapters in bold.

Lessard, PR, BD Perry (1988). Investigation of disease outbreaks and impaired productivity. Vet Clin North Am Food Anim Pract. 1988 Mar; 4(1): 1-212.

Authors:	Chapter Title:	Pages:
Hancock DD, et al.	Investigation planning and data gathering	1- 15
Lessard P	The characterization of disease outbreaks	17- 32
Hancock DD, et al	The collection and submission of samples for laboratory testing	33- 60
Martin SW	The interpretation of laboratory results	61- 78
Hueston WD	Evaluating risk factors in disease outbreaks	79- 95
Perry BD	The design and use of supportive epidemiologic studies	97-108
Gardner I	Techniques of reporting disease outbreak investigations	109-125
Swecker WS, et al	The investigation of nutritional disorders	127-144
Blodgett DJ	The investigation of outbreaks of toxicologic disease	145-158
Spangler L	The investigation of outbreaks of infectious disease	159-168
Erb HN.	The benefit-cost analysis of disease control programs	169-181
Dohoo IR, et al	Disease outbreak investigation: Three case studies	183-208

Cannon, RM, RT Roe (1982). Livestock Disease Surveys: A Field Manual for Veterinarians. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra. 35 pp.

One of the best sources for guidance on the questions of "how many samples are needed, given the cost vs. the value of the information from the testing" and "how best to select the animals for sampling from the group". The answers are not simple and depend on the question being asked and the size of the group.

Radostits, OM (ed., 2001). Herd Health: Food Animal Production Medicine, 3^rd ed. Saunders, 884 pp. ISBN 0-7216-7694-4.

Example chapters:

• Quantitative tools for production-oriented veterinarians
• Records systems and herd monitoring in production-oriented health management programs in food-producing animals
• Investigation of disease outbreaks and suboptimal productivity

Brand, A, JPTM Noordhuzien, YH Schukken, eds. (1998). Herd Health and Production Management in Dairy Practice. 2nd reprint Wageningen Pers. ISBN 90-74134-34-3  543 pp. pprbk, bout $92US.

This entire text focuses on monitoring, diagnoses and intervention against herd problems in all aspects of dairying from youngstock through reproduction, mastitis and infectious disease.

Gregg, MB (ed., 2002). Field Epidemiology, 2^nd ed. Oxford University Press, New York. 451 pp., ISBN 0195142594. (written by authors associated with the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the Centers for Disease Control as a guide for investigating disease outbreaks in humans).

The most useful chapters for herd investigations are the following:

• Conducting a Field Investigation (MB Gregg)
• Describing the Findings (RF Fontaine, RA Goodman).
• Designing Studies in the Field (RC Dicker)
• Analyzing and Interpreting Data (RC Dicker)

Wobeser GA (1994). Investigation and management of disease in wild animals. Plenum Press, 265 pp. Vet SF996.4.W63 1994

Section II: Diseases Investigation, pages 24-130, is an excellent discussion of investigation strategy in other than a farm animal context

Selected Papers and Single Chapters: (listed alphabetically - Out of Date!)

• Dargatz DA, MD Salman (1993) Application of epidemiological principles and methods to investigating and controlling equine infectious diseases Vet Clinics NA: Equine Practice. 9(2):247-255.

• Dwyer DM, et al. (1994). Use of case-control studies in outbreak investigations. Epidemiol Rev. 16:109-123.
• Hogan J, L Smith (2000). Troubleshooting mastitis problems. Nat Mastitis Council Regional Mtg Proceedings 14-16. August 24, 2000, Cleveland, Ohio.
• Kahrs RF. (1978). Techniques for investigating outbreaks of livestock disease. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 173:101-103.
• Kahrs RF. (1979). Teaching the techniques for investigating animal disease outbreaks. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 174:387-388.
• Martin, SW, AH Meek, P Willeberg (1987). Veterinary Epidemiology: Principles and Methods  Chapter 12: Field Investigations, pages 283-329. (complete description of an approach to herd investigation procedures, whether a disease outbreak or a production problem).
• Mickelsen, WD (1990). Investigating the causes of low pregnancy rates in beef cattle herds. Vet Med 85:418-420, 422-427.
• Nelson, AJ (1996). On-farm nutrition diagnostics: Nutrition management involvement opportunities for dairy practitioners. The Bovine Proceedings 29:76-85.
• Palmer SR.(1995). Outbreak investigation: the need for 'quick and clean' epidemiology. Int J Epidemiol. 24 Suppl 1: S34-S38.
• Radostits, OM, DC Blood, CC Gay (1994). Veterinary Medicine: A Textbook of the Diseases of Cattle, Sheep, Pigs, Goats and Horses, 8th ed., Chapter 1: Clinical Examination and Making a Diagnosis in  contains a section titled "Examination of the Herd", pages 29-37, that is a general over-view of the group diagnosis process.
• Radostits, OM, KE Leslie, J Fetrow (1994). Herd Health: Food Animal Production Medicine, 2nd ed, Chapter 2: Mathematical Techniques for Production Medicine, pages 25-48. (describes useful procedures to quantify findings in groups.)
• Ribble, CS, ED Janzen, J Campbell (1998). Disease outbreak investigation in the beef herd: Defining the problem. Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference 121-127.
• Ruegg, PL (1992). Use of basic epidemiologic principles in dairy production medicine. Part I. Assessing production. Comp Cont Educ for Pract Vet. 14:1535-1538, 1540, 1541, 1555.
• Ruegg, PL (1993). Use of basic epidemiologic principles in dairy production medicine. Part II. Investigating herd problems. Comp Cont Educ for Pract Vet. 15:309-313.
• Ruegg, PL (1996). Investigating herd problems and production on dairy farms. The Bovine Proceedings 29:96-101.
• Shears P. (1996). Pseudo-outbreaks. Lancet. 347:138.
• Steele-Bodger A. (1970). Investigating outbreaks of disease allegedly due to feedingstuffs. Vet Rec. 86:166.
• Toombs, RE, SE Wikse, RW Field, PS Holland (1992). Collecting a herd database to evaluate management and production of a beef cattle ranch. Veterinary Medicine ?:600-606. (includes Ranch Management Questionnaire)
• Torvaldsen, S, Peter B McIntyre (2002). Observational methods in epidemiologic assessment of vaccine effectiveness. Comm Dis Intell 26(3):451-7.
• Wikse, SE (1988). Investigation of impaired fertility in beef cattle herds. Comp Cont Educ for Pract Vet: Food Animal 10:1225-1231, 1240. (Includes investigation protocol).
• Wikse, SE, Toombs, RE, Field, RW, Holland, PS (1992). An epidemiologic approach to solving beef herd production and disease problems. Vet Med 87: 5, 495-506.
• Wikse, SE, ML Kinsel, RW Field, PS Holland (1994). Investigating perinatal calf mortality in beef herds. Vet Clinics of NA: Food Anim Pract 10:147-166.

On-Line Software Resources:

Epi-Info Home Page (Free CDC personal computer software for data management and epidemiologic analysis; includes an on-line manual and tutorial; sophisticated program for outbreak investigation)

Epi Info Tutorials