Open AccessDevelopment of a user‐friendly interface version of the Salmonella source‐attribution model
Author(s) -
Hald Tine,
Lund Jan
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
efsa supporting publications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2397-8325
DOI - 10.2903/sp.efsa.2012.en-318
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , citation , food safety , transparency (behavior) , political science , subject (documents) , law , operations research , library science , public relations , engineering , computer science , medicine , history , archaeology , pathology
This model is a user-friendly interface forattributing human cases of food-borne pathogens to the responsible food-animal reservoirs and/or food sources. The developed interface is called the EFSA Source Attribution Model (EFSA_SAM) and theprogramming language used is Embarcaderos Delphi XE2 Enterprise. Based on the user’s imported data andmodel selections, the interface generates a WinBUGS code that is executed in WinBUGS and the resulting dataare then imported from WinBUGS to the interface software for tabulation and graphical display. This approachensures consistency in both model and data setup, eliminating the need for user knowledge of WinBUGS syntax.EFSA_SAM requires data by country on reported number of human cases by subtypes, food-source prevalencesby subtypes and food production and trade. Users can specify which countries, food sources and subtypes (e.g.Salmonella serovars) to include in the model. The EFSA_SAM also includes the possibility to run differentscenario analyses, where the user can explore the effect on human cases by changing the prevalence of specificsubtypes in the included food sources. A critical part of all Bayesian models is to check for model convergenceand goodness of fit. The EFSA_SAM describes different ways for checking convergence and exploring model fitproviding the user with some tools to assess the validity of the model. The EFSA_SAM interface is deliveredwith a user-manual, included in here as well