Veterinary epidemiology and economics at work

Abstract

[Extract] Epidemiology is concerned with the prevention and control of disease in human and animal populations. It is a practical discipline which has developed in the context of the diseases that afflict humans and animals. In early societies, the main health problems in man and his domesticated animals were infectious. The word 'epidemiology' is derived from Greek roots, whose other constructs, such as 'epidemein' ('to visit a community'), give hints of the early association between epidemiology and infections that periodically entered a community (for example, the great plagues such as foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest and smallpox), in contrast to other diseases which were usually present in the population.