July 2019 by Janet Scarlett, DVM, MPH, PhD, Professor Emerita of Epidemiology/ Founder of Shelter Medicine Program, Cornell University

Audience: Executive Leadership, Shelter/Rescue Staff & Volunteers

Video Length: 51:08

Providing care for individual animals is the focus of most veterinary technicians. In shelters where animals are housed in groups, individual care is only one component of providing medical care. Another component is population health - what in large animal medicine is called "herd health".

The health of individuals affects the health of the population and vice versa. Metrics provide the means to assess the status of a population's health, prioritize its disease problems, and assess the effectiveness of preventive and disease control measures. In this session, disease surveillance, and the assessment of the frequency of common diseases in shelters are discussed.

This presentation was recorded at the 2019 ASPCA Maddie's® Cornell Shelter Medicine Conference.

About Janet Scarlett, DVM

Dr. Scarlett is a Professor Emerita of Epidemiology, and former Director and founder of the Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program at Cornell University. In the mid 1990's she became interested in the health and welfare of homeless animals. With funding from the National Council on Pet Population and Policy she helped design and conduct some of the first studies of factors leading to relinquishment of animals to shelters. She has worked on shelter-related projects including those involving infectious disease, effectiveness of spay/neuter programs, and the use of metrics to improve shelter animal welfare. After retirement, she continues her interest in the use of shelter metrics to improve animal welfare and is co-author of the recently published, Every Nose Counts, Using Metrics in Animal Shelters, A Maddie's® Guide.