Abstract

MONTESINOS LOPEZ, Osval Antonio et al. Group testing: An efficient alternative for estimating animal prevalence. Rev. mex. de cienc. pecuarias [online]. 2012, vol.3, n.4, pp.515-531. ISSN 2448-6698.

An estimate of animal prevalence or the detection of infectious agents is of vital importance to a country or state to protect food safety and to safeguard local and foreign trade. However, significant human and material resources are required to perform these two tasks. This article presents an overview of the estimate and detection processes with the statistical technique known as group testing. In animal science, group testing can help save substantial resources in the estimate and detection of infectious diseases when the prevalence is less than or equal to 10%. Group testing is a sound statistical technique proposed by Dorfman (1943). It consists of mixing the material of k individuals. Instead of a diagnostic test for each individual, only one test is performed with the resulting mixture of the material. This allows significant savings. Furthermore, this paper presents some methods to classify individuals, it describes the process of point and interval estimation of animal prevalence, and it illustrates the calculation of sample size according to this model. The intention is to help researchers in animal science to use this technique and save significant resources.

Keywords : group testing; animal prevalence; sample size; estimate; detection.

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