Veterinary epidemiology: Bayesian analysis software

Bayesian analysis is increasingly being used as an analytical technique in epidemiology. The WinBUGS and OpenBUGS software packages are commonly used for these analyses, although other statistical packages (such as MLwIN are also able to use Bayesian methodology.

• WinBUGS code for a variety of situations such as diagnostic test evaluation, disease prevalence estimation and disease presence determination can be found at Bayesian Epidemiologic Screening Technique (BEST) http://www.epi.ucdavis.edu/diagnostictests/home.html
  

All the programs below are also taken from this site.

• Bayesfreecalc1 (Determines the posterior probability that the prevalence, in a population of a given size with a given number of positive test positive individuals out of a sample of a given size, truly exceeds some predetermined threshold/cut-off value) http://www.epi.ucdavis.edu/diagnostictests/module02.html

• Bayesfreecalc2 (Determines the required sample size in order to detect pathogen presence, accounting for imperfect diagnostic tests and sampling without replacement) http://www.epi.ucdavis.edu/diagnostictests/module02.html

• BDFree1 (sample size calculation to estimate disease freedom, using Bayesian methodology - same program as Bayesfreecalc2) http://www.epi.ucdavis.edu/diagnostictests/software.html