Veterinary Epidemiology had been recognized as an important subject in Applied Veterinary Medicine. However, this subject had been educated in the subjects for Veterinary Public Health, Animal Hygiene and Veterinary Infectious Disease in Japanese Veterinary schools. The Japan society of Veterinary Epidemiology had proposed that Veterinary Epidemiology should be educated as an independent subject in Veterinary Education. In 2011, Veterinary Medicine Model Core Curriculum was enacted in Japanese Veterinary education, and Veterinary Epidemiology was included in Veterinary Medicine Model Core Curriculum Veterinary epidemiology as an independent subject. Therefore, Veterinary schools in Japan will start the subject for Veterinary Epidemiology in their curriculum. We should educate not only “lecture” but also “practical education” in Veterinary Epidemiology. However, few “practical education” in Veterinary epidemiology is done in Japanese Veterinary School. The Japan society of Veterinary Epidemiology propose that practical education of Veterinary Epidemiology should be educated in Veterinary Education.

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To develop a core group of field epidemiologists for risk assessment and management of infectious diseases and other health-related crises, the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) of Japan was begun in 1999 as a two year on-the-job training course. Core activities of the FETP consist of 6 components : (1) training opportunities ; (2) conducting investigations of disease outbreaks ; (3) disease surveillance (analysis and evaluation of the system) ; (4) communication ; (5) epidemiological research ; and (6) teaching opportunities. As of the end of March 2012, there are now fifty graduates including 2 veterinarians who are on the frontlines of public health and medical science, and belong to local public health authorities, research institutes, universities, Self-Defense Forces and so on.

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In Japan, foodborne outbreak investigations tend to rely on pathogen detection from suspected foods, and rarely depend on epidemiological findings when implementing control measures. This often leads to a delay in outbreak response. In the United States and many countries in Europe, results from epidemiological investigations are more frequently used to control the outbreak in a timely manner.
In June 1997, a major enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157 foodborne outbreak struck Okayama city causing 125 illnesses. Despite a thorough investigation, health officials could not determine the direct cause of the outbreak due to insufficient epidemiological findings. Recognizing the need for epidemiological training, Okayama City Public Health Center, in collaboration with nearby universities, started hosting “Field Epidemiology Training” courses every year for food sanitation health officials not only of Okayama city, but also of other municipalities.
The training course provides two three-day classes, “basic” and “advanced”, according to the knowledge level of the trainees.
The “basic” class aims at understanding general concepts of epidemiology and mastering basic techniques in a foodborne outbreak investigation. An exercise session is held after each lecture, which helps the trainees to understand the concepts and how to implement them to foodborne outbreak investigations. The course is practical and trainees may use the techniques taught in this course as soon as they get back to their job, which is highly appreciated.
In the “advanced” class, trainees are divided into groups to each analyze outbreak investigation data brought from each trainee’s health centers. Each group makes a presentation at the end of the course on how they analyzed the data and the reason for their final decision to manage the outbreak. They discuss the methods used and their decisions with the trainers and other groups.
We believe that field epidemiology should play a more important role in foodborne outbreak investigation in Japan, and that field epidemiology training is becoming increasingly necessary.

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Important animal diseases, such as BSE, highly pathogenic avian influenza and foot and mouth disease, occurred in Japan in recent years. These diseases severely damaged livestock industries and also increased social concerns about food safety and public health. With increasing the importance of animal health in the general public as well as the livestock industries, the role of “epidemiology” has been expected as a useful tool to understand and analyze disease situations and to support decision making for control and prevention of animal diseases. To meet these expectations, the veterinary epidemiology training course for local and national veterinary officials in working for animal health is held annually. The training course is sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and managed by the National Institute of Animal Health. The aim of this training course is to provide basic principles and skills of veterinary epidemiology applicable to animal disease control activities. During the training course, trainees firstly learn basic methods to analyze and interpret field data, to evaluate diagnostic tests, and to design observational studies and surveys using sampling methods. Then, they learn how to apply basic epidemiological methods to problems through practical exercises. These include outbreak investigations and epidemiological studies of diseases in animal populations. This training course provides good opportunities to brush up and develop appropriate knowledge and skills of epidemiology for veterinarians in the animal health field.

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In Japan, following the recent outbreaks of emerging/ re-emerging zoonoses and trans-boundary diseases, the importance of epidemiology in application to control such disease is increasingly recognized. Although far belated from the other countries, veterinary epidemiology education started in 2006 and the first independent veterinary epidemiology unit in Japan was established in 2010 in Rakuno Gakuen University. We introduces the education system associated with veterinary epidemiology in the university. The Veterinary Epidemiology Unit aims for problem-oriented approach and internationalization and deals with wide range of problems inside and outside Japan, frequently using trans-disciplinary approach such as One Health. In order to start applied veterinary epidemiology education in Japanese universities, veterinary epidemiology experts should strengthen their networks to provide good back-stopping of the newly assigned researchers. It is also important to appeal for the establishment of regulatory science funds for epidemiology attached with the capacity development of veterinary graduate students.

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The cause, the pathogenic mechanism, the preventive and the inspection method of food poisoning associated with raw horse meat are described here. From epidemiological analysis of symptomatic complaint cases, raw horse meat turned out to be cause food. A lot of Sarcocystis cysts were observed in horse meat by parasitological examination. Sarcocystis parasitic in horse meat was identified as S. fayeri from the morphological and biological characteristics. The intestinal loop test indicated that the cyst and the bradyzoites of S. fayeri in raw horse meat revealed the enterotoxicity, which was due to 15 kDa protein contained in the bradyzoite. The enterotoxicity of sarcocysts was abolished by freezing for 18 hours or more at -22°C. The presence of sarcocysts in horse meat can be confirmed by conventional microscopic observation and by the analysis of 18SrDNA gene sequence using PCR method.

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The objectives of the present study were to investigate age of onset and clinical signs in canine atopic dermatitis (CAD) by using descriptive epidemiology. Medical records of 2,338 dogs diagnosed by veterinarians in 996 hospitals were evaluated with references to gender, geographic distribution, breeds, and a type of a diet given, and smoking status of an owner. Backward elimination in multiple regression analysis was performed, and non-significant variables (P>0.05) were eliminated from the models. Mean age of onset in CAD was 2.56 years old (0.05 SEM). Earlier age of onset was associated with breeds, spayed female dogs, dogs living with a cat, and dogs owned by a smoker (P<0.05). Each clinical signs was also associated with breeds, intact female dogs, dogs living with a cat and dogs owned by a smoker (P<0.05). In conclusion, this study explored an association between age of onset and clinical signs in CAD and breeds, sex or environmental factors.

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We have measured the four lifetime components of sow nonproductive days (NPD) and proportions of the four lifetime NPD components by farm productivity groups, by using 44,720 lifetime records on 101 Japanese commercial farms. Lifetime NPD were divided into four components : first-mating-to-conception interval at parity 0 (FMCI), lifetime weaning-to-first-mating interval (WMI), lifetime sow first-mating-to-conception interval (MCI), and last weaning-to-culling interval (WCI). Three farm productivity groups were formed on the basis of the upper and lower 25th percentiles of pigs weaned per mated female per year : high-, intermediate-, or low-performing farms. Mean lifetime NPD (±SEM) was 87.4±0.31 days. Mean FMCI, lifetime WMI, lifetime MCI and WCI were 5.8±0.10, 27.4±0.11, 14.9±0.16, and 39.3±0.23 days, respectively, and comprising 6.6, 31.4, 17.0, and 45.0%, respectively of lifetime NPD. High-performing farms had lower lifetime NPD and four NPD components than low-performing farms (P<0.05), although there were no differences between the farm groups in sow life days. On high-performing farms, the relative contributions of the NPD components in FMCI, lifetime MCI, and WCI were 1.9 to 5.4% lower than those on low-performing farms (P<0.05). In order to improve sow lifetime efficiency it is important to decrease the duration of each NPD component. Additionally, the relative contribution of WCI is the largest of the four NPD components, so controlling this is especially critical.

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The aims of this study were to determine the presence of Enterobacteriaceae strains producing CTX-M-type extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) (CTX-M) involved in bovine mastitis among Japanese dairy cattle and clinical courses of cows affected by the mastitis. Between August 2006 and January 2007 we chose 51 cefazolin-resistant isolates from oxidase-negative, Gram-negative bacilli isolates obtained from 30,237 quarter milk samples from 20,194 cows with mastitis in 1,000 dairy farms in Nemuro Subprefecture of Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. They were screened for ESBLs using the standard Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) ESBLs confirmatory combination disc tests. We performed genotyping of CTX-M-, TEM-, and SHV-type β-lactamases by PCR analysis and nucleotide sequencing, and determined the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 21 antimicrobials. We identified three Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates producing CTX-M-2 from three quarters of two cows with mastitis in two dairy farms. One cow had mild acute clinical mastitis (slight swelling, warmth and hardness of the udder, slightly watery foremilk with flakes) without systemic symptoms and resolved within 4 weeks of diagnosis. Another cow had severe acute clinical mastitis with systemic symptoms and resolved within 10 weeks of diagnosis. The three isolates exhibited resistance to ampicillin, cefazolin, cefuroxime, cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, cefpodioxime, ceftiofur, cefquinome, kanamycin, and oxytetracycline. Conversely, they were susceptible to ceftazidime, cefmetazole, moxalactam, imipenem, aztreonam, gentamicin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and enrofloxacin. This is the first report on CTX-M-producing K. pneumoniae involved in bovine mastitis in Japan.

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The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1924. With its 178 Member Countries (as of November 2012), it works to (i) ensure transparency in the global animal disease situation ; (ii) collect, analyse and disseminate veterinary scientific information ; (iii) encourage international solidarity in the control of animal diseases ; (iv) safeguard world trade by publishing health standards for international trade in animals and animal products ; (v) improve the legal framework and resources of national Veterinary Services ; and (vi) provide a better guarantee of food of animal origin and to promote animal welfare through a science-based approach. The international standards of the OIE are considered as points of reference for animal health and zoonoses by the World Trade Organization.

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National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring ; NARMS, USA), Danish Integrated Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring and Research Programme ; DANMAP, Denmark) and Swedish Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring ; SVARM, Sweden) were investigated.
NARMS is a collaboration among the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U. S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It monitors retail meat, human and food-producing animals. DANMAP is also an integrated system involving animals, retail meat and humans. Same as the National Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System in Japan (JVARM), all systems monitor Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Escherichia coli and Enterococcus spp.. In these systems, different from JVARM, they collect the animal samples in the slaughterhouse. In European countries, they emphasize to monitor the consumption of antimicrobials for food animals. In order to construct the better monitoring system, they often review the methods by themselves.

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In this report, I introduce the 13^th International Symposium on Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics (ISVEE 13) held from 20-24, August 2012 in Maastrich, Netherland and Belgium. ISVEE is one of the biggest international conferences in the veterinary epidemiology. Numerous studies were reported and we had lively discussion in the conference. In particular, there were lots of reports about transboundary animal infectious diseases such as Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD). We should promote international collaboration in many countries, and ISVEE is a good opportunity for its activities.

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