Modeling the burden of disease for cattle.
Date
2014
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Abstract
Summary measures of human population health (SMPH) represents approaches to
measuring the burden of disease. These approaches are divided into two classes: health
expectancies and health gaps. A health gap model approach called disability adjusted
life years (DALYs) was proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to assess
the burden of disease on human populations. DALYs are the sum of the years of life
lost due to premature mortality (YLL) and years of life lost due to disability (YLD).
WHO pointed out that DALYs could be adapted to assess the burden of the disease
on animal populations. However, to date, little has been done in this regard. This
motivated our study which is focused on cattle (cows, oxen and bulls). Using the
DALYs approach, we formulated a productivity adjusted life years (PALYs) approach
for cattle populations. We used it to assess the burden of ticks and tick-borne diseases
(T and TBDs) for cattle populations in 20 villages in the Eastern Cape Province, South
Africa. This is the rst time that such an approach has been taken to assess the burden
of disease on animals, in particular, for cattle.
Description
M. Sc. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.
Keywords
Cattle--Health--Eastern Cape--Mathematical models., Cattle--Diseases--Eastern Cape--Mathematical models., Cattle--Diseases--Research--Eastern Cape., Theses--Mathematics.