NR AWMW
AU Saegerman,C.; Speybroeck,N.; Roels,S.; Vanopdenbosch,E.; Thiry,E.; Berkvens,D.
TI Decision support tools in clinical diagnosis in cows with suspect spongiform encephalopathy
QU International Conference - Prion 2006: Strategies, advances and trends towards protection of society - 3.10.-6.10.2006, Torino, Italy, Lingotto Conference Centre - Poster sessions DIA-43
PT Konferenz-Poster
AB Reporting of clinically suspected cattle is currently the most common method to detect cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Improvement of clinical diagnosis and decision making remains crucial. A comparison of clinical patterns, consisting of 25 signs, was made between all 30 BSE cases, confirmed in Belgium before October 2002, and 272 suspected, but subsequently histologically, immunohistochemically and scrapie-associated-fibres negative cases. Seasonality in reporting suspected cases was observed, more cases being reported during wintertime when animals were kept indoor. The median duration of illness was 30 days. The ten most relevant signs of BSE were: kicking in the milking parlour, hypersensitivity to touch and/or sound, head shyness, panicstricken response, reluctance to enter in the milking parlour, abnormal ear movement or carriage, increased alertness behaviour, reduced milk yield, teeth grinding and temperament change. Ataxia did not appear to be a specific sign of BSE. A classification and regression tree was constructed, using the following four features: age of the animal, year of birth, number of relevant BSE signs noted and number of clinical signs, typical for listeriosis, noted. The model had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 85%. This approach allows the use of an interactive decision support tool (efficacious passive surveillance), based entirely on odds ratios, a statistic independent of disease prevalence.
AD C. Saegerman: Epidemiology and Risk analysis applied to Veterinary sciences, Department of Infectious and Parasitics diseases, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium; N. Speyenbroeck, D. Berkvens: Department of Tropical Animal Health and Production, Institute of Tropical Medicine, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium; S. Roels, E. Vanopdenbosch: Veterinary and Agrochemical Research Center, B-1180 Uccle, Belgium; E. Thiry: Virology and Viral Diseases, Department of Infectious and Parasitics diseases, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium. E-mail: claude.saegerman@ulg.ac.be
SP englisch
PO Italien