Design of Veterinary Epidemiological Survey to Understand Disaster-Related Deaths

This report proposes a new research concept to grasp the actual condition of a complex disaster consisting of the great earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear catastrophe that caused significant damage, mainly in Fukushima Prefecture in March 2011, from the environmental health of livestock. The central theme here is to accurately assess whether adverse events specific to a nuclear disaster have occurred in domestic cattle\u27s observed population. To this end, we have begun to attempt to integrate events occurring at the individual level into the population level, using statistical techniques that have been practiced in epidemiological studies of human populations. The utilization of cattle individual identification information database is a powerful driving force for realizing this approach. We are trying to assess critical aspects of livestock environmental health from a veterinary epidemiological perspective using mortality events as an observational indicator. Preliminary results suggest that feeding area, cattle type, sex, and age group modify mortality. Future estimates of mortality risk will prioritize the selection of risk models and conditions for their application