title: Bayesian estimation of the accuracy of the calf respiratory scoring chart and ultrasonography for the diagnosis of bovine respiratory disease in pre-weaned dairy calves.
abstract: There is currently no gold standard method for the diagnosis of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) complex in Holstein pre-weaned dairy calves. Systematic thoracic ultrasonography (TUS) has been used as a proxy for BRD, but cannot be directly used by producers. The Wisconsin calf respiratory scoring chart (CRSC) is a simpler alternative, but with unknown accuracy. Our objective was to estimate the accuracy of CRSC, while adjusting for the lack of a gold standard. Two cross sectional study populations with a high BRD prevalence (n=106 pre-weaned Holstein calves) and an average BRD prevalence (n=85 pre-weaned Holstein calves) from North America were studied. All calves were simultaneously assessed using CRSC (cutoff used ≥ 5) and TUS (cutoff used ≥ 1cm of lung consolidation). Bayesian latent class models allowing for conditional dependence were used with informative priors for BRD prevalence and TUS accuracy (sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp)) and non-informative priors for CRSC accuracies. Robustness of the model was tested by relaxing priors for prevalence or TUS accuracy. The SeCRSC (95% credible interval (CI)) and SpCRSC were 62.4% (47.9-75.8) and 74.1% (64.9-82.8) respectively. The SeTUS was 79.4% (66.4-90.9) and SpTUS was 93.9% (88.0-97.6). The imperfect accuracy of CRSC and TUS should be taken into account when using those tools to assess BRD status.
authors: Département des Sciences Cliniques, Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, St-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada J2S 7C6. Electronic address: s.buczinski@umontreal.ca.
authors: Sébastien
authors: S
authors: Buczinski
authors: Department of Medical Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Veterinary Medicine, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
authors: Terri
authors: T
authors: L Ollivett
authors: Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada; Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
authors: Nandini
authors: N
authors: Dendukuri
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000833:Animals, Suckling; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D048090:Bovine Respiratory Disease Complex / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology; D002417:Cattle; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D009518:New York; D015995:Prevalence; D011792:Quebec; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests / Q000662:veterinary; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014463:Ultrasonography
keywords: Bayesian analysis; Calves; Latent class; Pneumonia; Respiratory disease; Sensitivity; Specificity