%0 Journal Article
%T Use of data mining techniques to investigate disease risk classification as a proxy for compromised biosecurity of cattle herds in Wales
%A ¨¢ngel Ortiz-Pelaez
%A Dirk U Pfeiffer
%J BMC Veterinary Research
%D 2008
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1746-6148-4-24
%X Three data mining methods have been applied: logistic regression, classification trees and factor analysis. Using the cattle holding population in Wales, a holding was considered positive if at least bovine TB or one of the ten most frequently diagnosed infectious or transmissible non-notifiable diseases in England and Wales, according to the Veterinary Investigation Surveillance Report (VIDA) had been diagnosed in 2004. High-risk holdings can be described as open large cattle herds located in high-density cattle areas with frequent movements off to many locations within Wales. Additional risks are associated with the holding being a dairy enterprise and with a large farming area.This work has demonstrated the potential of mining various livestock-relevant databases to obtain generic criteria for individual cattle herd biosecurity risk classification. Despite the data and analytical constraints the described risk profiles are highly specific and present variable sensitivity depending on the model specifications. Risk profiling of farms provides a tool for designing targeted surveillance activities for endemic or emerging diseases, regardless of the prior amount of information available on biosecurity at farm level. As the delivery of practical evidence-based information and advice is one of the priorities of Defra's new Animal Health and Welfare Strategy (AHWS), data-driven models, derived from existing databases, need to be developed that can then be used to inform activities during outbreaks of endemic diseases and to help design surveillance activities.Following stagnation during the late nineties, world trade in agricultural products has increased during the last six years [1] on average by 9% annually. This development together with the agreement of sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS agreement) for the protection of public, animal and plant health during international trade have resulted in an increased need for developing more reliable certification appr
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/4/24