Veterinary Epidemiology and Zoonosis

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS)

• Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are computerized systems for collecting, storing, managing, interrogating and displaying spatial data.
• Now a days, GIS has crept out of obscurity to become a major industry concerned with processing geographically based data.
• It incorporates various categories of data, all of which are geographically referenced into a single manipulative information system. Data can be cartographic data or attribute data.
• It can do graphical analysis based on geographic distribution, statistical analysis and modeling.
• Geographical Information Systems have the ability to graphically overlay data from various sources on the same map.

Applications of GIS

• Cartography: Maps can be produced and updated very quickly.
• Neighborhood analysis: It can identify the livestock units adjacent to the affected them.
• Overlay analysis: The maps on different data sets can be superimposed on each other.
• Buffer generation: can provide information about the material/animal at risk of infection within a given distance of an infected farm or along a road that has been used by infected animals.
• Network analysis: Permits optimal routing along networks of linear features.
• Three-dimensional surface modeling: Creation of isoplethic maps.
• The geographic information system has the ability to link and correlate graphic and non-graphic data, which helps in spatial distribution of disease and related factors.
• Now a days, these systems are used for disease control in Veterinary science as they form integral part of veterinary decision support systems.