Herd Health Management

Course goals

- The student is able to draw up a diagnostic protocol for assessing health at flock level and can interpret the results to determine the presence or absence of disease and determine prevalence.
- The student is able to analyse and interpret production figures quantitatively and can propose substantiated additional research in case of detected abnormalities.
- Students can draw up a (best available) evidence-based treatment and prevention plan for the most relevant (endemic) infectious disease problems in dairy farming, taking into account (among others) immunological principles, biosecurity, regulations and sustainability.
- Students can translate a business problem into a risk question and are able to perform a risk assessment regarding biosecurity and stable climate, as well as a risk-benefit assessment for animal welfare.
- Based on the results of a risk assessment, the student can draw up a prevention and/or intervention plan, substantiate it economically and indicate a method to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures.
- The student can explain the results of the risk assessment and the prevention and intervention plan clearly and well-founded to the livestock farmer.
- The student is able to understand and explain cross-farm health programmes, both from the perspective of the sector and the individual farmer.
 

Content

The course spans five weeks, each with a specific theme:

1. Health in numbers: The first week focuses on the theory of data analysis and diagnostics of (infectious) diseases at the population level. The focus is on designing disease-specific sampling strategies and using production data as an indicator of health. In addition, students study population dynamics of infectious diseases and the economics of animal health at farm level. (Coordinator Arjan Stegeman)
2. Health risk mapping: In the second week, students learn to conduct a structured risk assessment to assess biosecurity on a pig/poultry/ruminant farm. They also conduct a Risk-Benefit assessment for animal welfare based on the six criteria for animal worthiness and perform a barn climate analysis. (Coordinator Marina Meester)
3. Infectious diseases in practice.  In the third week, students learn to prepare and implement a diagnostic plan for relevant infectious diseases in dairy farming. They develop evidence-based treatment and prevention plans, taking into account immunological principles, biosecurity, regulations and sustainability. They also analyse animal health programmes, interpret diagnostic results and provide substantiated advice on participation in management and control programmes. (Coordinator Niels Dekker)
4. Managing and communicating health risks: Based on the results from risk assessment, students develop a prevention and/or intervention plan for the short and (medium-)long term. This plan also includes an economic rationale, an evaluation method for the effectiveness of the measures and a strategy to clearly communicate the risk assessment to the farmer. (Coordinator Mirjam Nielen)
5. Sector-level health management: in the final week, students design a proposal for an animal health programme targeting a specific disease, such as PRRS or IB. The disease is identified for each group at the beginning of the course. Students formulate the objective of the programme and apply the methods from the previous weeks to develop an effective approach at both farm and sector level. (Coordinator Gerdien van Schaik)

What will you learn?

• Health in numbers - Data analysis, epidemiology and sampling strategies
• Health risk mapping - Biosecurity, barn climate and animal dignity
• Infectious diseases in practice - Diagnostics and evidence-based treatment plans
• Risk management & communication - Strategies for effective interventions
• Sector-level health management - Design a health programme for an animal sector

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

Apply methods to quantitatively assess the health status of a flock on a farm. Combining this competence with knowledge of disease and health at population level, you will be able to prepare numerically based prevention and intervention plans. In addition, you are able to understand and explain sectoral animal health programmes to livestock farmers.