An International Journal on Research and Development in Veterinary Epidemiology, Animal Disease Prevention and Control, and Animal Health Economics

Types of contribution
1. Original research papers (Regular Papers)
2. Review articles
3. Short communications
4. Letters to the Editor
5. Book reviews

Original research papers should report the results of original research. The material should not have been previously published elsewhere, except in a preliminary form.
Review articles should cover subjects falling within the scope of the journal which are of active current interest.
A Short Communication is a concise but complete description of a limited investigation, which will not be included in a later paper. Short Communications should be as completely documented, both by reference to the literature and description of the experimental procedures employed, as a regular paper. They should not occupy more than 6 printed pages (about 12 manuscript pages, including figures, tables and references).
Letters to the Editor offering comment, or useful critique on material published in the journal are welcomed. The decision to publish submitted letters rests purely with the Editor-in-Chief. Any letter received, and approved for publication, will be sent to the Corresponding Author of the paper to which it refers for a response. Both letter and response (if received) will then be published together. It is hoped that the publication of such letters will permit an exchange of views which will be of benefit to both the journal and its readers.
Book reviews will be included in the journal on a range of relevant books which are not more than 2 years old. Book Reviews will be solicited by the Book Review Editor. Unsolicited reviews will not usually be accepted.

Submission of manuscripts
Submission to Preventive Veterinary Medicine now proceeds online via Elsevier Editorial System - http://ees.elsevier.com/prevet. Authors will be guided step-by-step through uploading files directly from their computers. Authors should select a set of classifications for their papers from a given list, as well as a category designation (Original Research Paper, Short Communication, and so on). Electronic PDF proofs will be automatically generated from uploaded files, and used for subsequent reviewing.

Authors should send queries concerning the submission process or journal procedures to AuthorSupport@elsevier.com. Authors can check the status of their manuscript within the review procedure using Elsevier Editorial System.

Authors submitting hard copy papers will be asked to resubmit using Elsevier Editorial System.

Submission of an article is understood to imply that the article is original and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Submission also implies that all authors have approved the paper for release and are in agreement with its content. Upon acceptance of the article by the journal, the author(s) will be asked to transfer the copyright of the article to the Publisher. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information.

All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

Acknowledgements
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

Conflict of interest
At the end of the text, under a subheading "Conflict of interest statement" all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Role of the funding source
All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgement at the end of the text. Authors should declare the role of study sponsors, if any, in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the study sponsors had no such involvement, the authors should so state.

Ethics
Circumstances relating to animal experimentation must meet the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals as issued by the Council for the International Organizations of Medical Sciences. They are obtainable from: Executive Secretary C.I.O.M.S., c/o WHO, Via Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland, or at the following URL: http://www.cioms.ch/frame_1985_texts_of_guidelines.htm. Unnecessary cruelty in animal experimentation is not acceptable to the Editors of Preventive Veterinary Medicine.

Preparation of manuscripts
1. Manuscripts should be written in English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly advised to have their manuscripts checked by an English-speaking colleague prior to submission.

Language Editing: Authors Home provides details of some companies who can provide English language and copyediting services to authors who need assistance before they submit their article or before it is accepted for publication. Authors should contact these services directly. For more information about language editing services, please email authorsupport@elsevier.com.

Please note that Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered by outside vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our terms & conditions http://www.elsevier.com/termsandconditions.

2. Manuscripts should have numbered lines, with wide margins and double spacing throughout, i.e. also for abstracts, footnotes and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered. However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary one may refer to sections. Avoid excessive usage of italics to emphasize part of the text.

3. Manuscripts in general should be organized in the following order:
Title (should be clear, descriptive and not too long)
Name(s) of author(s)
Complete postal address(es) of affiliations
Full telephone, Fax No. and e-mail address of the corresponding author
Present address(es) of author(s) if applicable
Complete correspondence address including e-mail address to which the proofs should be sent
Abstract
Keywords (indexing terms), normally 3-6 items. Please refer to last index (Vol. 50/3-4).
Introduction
Material studied, area descriptions, methods, techniques
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Acknowledgments and any additional information concerning research grants, etc.
References
Tables
Figure captions
Tables (separate file(s))
Figures (separate file(s)).

4. Titles and subtitles should not be run within the text. They should be typed on a separate line, without indentation. Use lower-case letter type.

5. SI units should be used.

6. Elsevier reserves the privilege of returning to the author for revision accepted manuscripts and illustrations which are not in the proper form given in this guide.

Before submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors should read the Appendix at the end of this Guide, which provides details on the minimum items of information which an article should contain to allow proper evaluation of its Methods by the journal's referees/Editors. Maunuscripts lacking this information will be returned to authors prior to refereeing.

Abstracts
The abstract should be clear, descriptive and not longer than 400 words.

Tables
1. Authors should take notice of the limitations set by the size and lay-out of the journal. Large tables should be avoided. Reversing columns and rows will often reduce the dimensions of a table.
2. If many data are to be presented, an attempt should be made to divide them over two or more tables.
3. Tables should be numbered according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all tables.
4. Each table should occupy a separate page of the manuscript. Tables should never be included in the text.
5. Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title.
6. Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added between parentheses.
7. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.
8. Any explanation essential to the understanding of the table should be given as a footnote at the bottom of the table.

Illustrations
1. All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) should be submitted as separate files, preferably in TIFF or EPS format.
2. Illustrations should be numbered according to their sequence in the text. References should be made in the text to each illustration.
3. Illustrations should be designed with the format of the page of the journal in mind. Illustrations should be of such a size as to allow a reduction of 50%.
4. Lettering should be big enough to allow a reduction of 50% without becoming illegible. Any lettering should be in English. Use the same kind of lettering throughout and follow the style of the journal.
5. If a scale should be given, use bar scales on all illustrations instead of numerical scales that must be changed with reduction.
6. Each illustration should have a caption. The captions to all illustrations should be typed on a separate sheet of the manuscript.
7. Explanations should be given in the figure legend(s). Drawn text in the illustrations should be kept to a minimum.
8. Photographs are only acceptable if they have good contrast and intensity.
9. If you submit usable colour figures, Elsevier would ensure that these figures appeared free-of-charge in colour in the electronic version of your accepted paper, regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. Colour illustrations can only be included in print if the additional cost of reproduction is contributed by the author: you would receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article.
Please note that because of technical complications which may arise by converting colour figures to 'grey scale' (for the printed version, should you not opt for colour in print), you should submit in addition usable black and white figures corresponding to all colour illustrations.
10. Advice on the preparation of illustrations can be found at the following URL: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions

Preparation of supplementary data
Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file.

References
1. All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. The manuscript should be carefully checked to ensure that the spelling of author's names and dates are exactly the same in the text as in the reference list.
2. In the text refer to the author's name (without initial) and year of publication, followed – if necessary – by a short reference to appropriate pages. Examples: "Since Peterson (1988) has shown that..." "This is in agreement with results obtained later (Kramer, 1989, pp.12–16)".
3. If reference is made in the text to a publication written by more than two authors the name of the first author should be used followed by "et al.". This indication, however, should never be used in the list of references. In this list names of first author and co-authors should be mentioned.
4. References cited together in the text should be arranged chronologically. The list of references should be arranged alphabetically on authors' names, and chronologically per author. If an author's name in the list is also mentioned with co-authors the following order should be used: publications of the single author, arranged according publication dates – publications of the same author with one co-author – publications of the author with more than one co-author. Publications by the same author(s) in the same year should be listed as1974a, 1974b, etc.
5. Use the following system for arranging your references:
a. For periodicals
Dohoo, I.R., Ruegg, P.L., 1993. Herd level measures of health and productivity in Prince Edward Island dairy herds. Prev. Vet. Med. 16, 241–254.
b. For edited symposia, special issues, etc. published in a periodical
Weatherley, A.J., Hong, C., Harris,T.J., Smith, D.G., Hammet, N.C., 1993. Persistent efficacy of doramectin against experimental nematode infections in calves. In: Vercruysse, J. (Ed.), Doramectin – a novel avermectin. Vet. Parasitol. 49, 45–50.
c. For books
Blaha, T. (Ed.), 1989. Applied Veterinary Epidemiology. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
d. For multi-author books
Wilson, M.B., Nakane, P.K., 1978. Recent developments in the periodate method of conjugating horseradish peroxidase (HRPO) to antibodies. In: Knapp, W., Holubar, K., Wick, G. (Eds.), Immunofluorescence and Related Staining Techniques. North Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 215–224.
6. Abbreviate the titles of periodicals mentioned in the list of references in accordance with BIOSIS Serial Sources, published annually by BIOSIS. The correct abbreviation for this journal is: Prev. Vet. Med.
7. In the case of publications in any language other than English, the original title is to be retained. However, the titles publications in non-Latin alphabets should be transliterated, and annotation such as "(in Russian)" or "(in Greek, with English abstract)" should be added.
8. Work accepted for publication but not yet published should be referred to as "in press".
9. References concerning unpublished data and "personal communications" should not be cited in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text.
10. Web references may be given. As a minimum, the full URL is necessary. Any further information, such as Author names, dates, reference to a source publication and so on, should also be given.
11. Articles available online but without volume and page numbers may be referred to by means of their Digital Object identifier (DOI) code.

Formulae
1. Give the meaning of all symbols immediately after the equation in which they are first used.
2. For simple fractions use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line.
3. Equations should be numbered serially at the right-hand side in parentheses. In general only equations explicitly referred to in the text need be numbered.
4. The use of fractional powers instead of root signs is recommended. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp.
5. In chemical formulae, valence of ions should be given as, e.g. Ca²⁺ , not as Ca⁺⁺.
6. Isotope numbers should precede the symbols, e.g. ¹⁸O.
7. The repeated writing of chemical formulae in the text is to be avoided where reasonably possible; instead, the name of the compound should be given in full. Exceptions may be made in the case of a very long name occurring very frequently or in the case of a compound being described as the end product of a gravimetric determination (e.g. phosphate as P₂O₅).

Footnotes
1. Footnotes should only be used if absolutely essential. In most cases it should be possible to incorporate the information in normal text.
2. If used, they should be numbered in the text, indicated by superscript numbers, and kept as short as possible.

Nomenclature
1. Authors and editors are, by general agreement, obliged to accept the rules governing biological nomenclature, as laid down in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, and the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
2. All biotica (crops, plants, insects, birds, mammals, etc.) should be identified by their scientific names when the English term is first used, with the exception of common domestic animals.
3. All biocides and other organic compounds must be identified by their Geneva names when first used in the text. Active ingredients of all formulations should be likewise identified.
4. For chemical nomenclature, the conventions of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the official recommendations of the IUPAC–IUB Combined Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature should be followed.

Copyright
If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the Author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by Authors in these cases: contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Oxford, UK: phone (+1) 215 239 3804 or +44(0)1865 843830, fax +44(0)1865 853333, e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.

Material in unpublished letters and manuscripts is also protected and must not be published unless permission has been obtained.

Authors Rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) may do the following:
• make copies (print or electronic) of the article for your own personal use, including for your own classroom teaching use
• make copies and distribute such copies (including through e-mail) of the article to research colleagues, for the personal use by such colleagues (but not commercially or systematically, e.g., via an e-mail list or list server)
• post a pre-print version of the article on Internet websites including electronic pre-print servers, and to retain indefinitely such version on such servers or sites
• post a revised personal version of the final text of the article (to reflect changes made in the peer review and editing process) on your personal or institutional website or server, with a link to the journal homepage (on elsevier.com)
• present the article at a meeting or conference and to distribute copies of the article to the delegates attending such a meeting
• for your employer, if the article is a 'work for hire', made within the scope of your employment, your employer may use all or part of the information in the article for other intra-company use (e.g., training)
• retain patent and trademark rights and rights to any processes or procedure described in the article
• include the article in full or in part in a thesis or dissertation (provided that this is not to be published commercially)
• use the article or any part thereof in a printed compilation of your works, such as collected writings or lecture notes (subsequent to publication of your article in the journal)
• prepare other derivative works, to extend the article into book-length form, or to otherwise re-use portions or excerpts in other works, with full acknowledgement of its original publication in the journal

Funding body agreements and policies

Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors who publish in Elsevier journals to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies).

Proofs
One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post). Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win. If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

Offprints
The corresponding author will, at no cost, be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use.

Author Services
Questions arising after acceptance of the manuscript, especially those relating to proofs, should be directed to Elsevier Ireland, Elsevier House, Brookvale Plaza, East Park, Shannon, Co. Clare, Ireland, Tel.: (+353) 61 709600, Fax: (+353) 61 709111/113, Email: authorsupport@elsevier.com.

Authors can also keep a track of the progress of their accepted article, and set up e-mail alerts informing them of changes to their manuscript's status, by using the "Track your accepted article" option on the journal's homepage ( http://www.elsevier.com/locate/prevetmed). For privacy, information on each article is password-protected. The author should key in the "Our Reference" code (which is in the letter of acknowledgement sent by the Publisher on receipt of the accepted article) and the name of the corresponding author.

Preventive Veterinary Medicine has no page charges

Appendix

Authors: These minimum items of information are needed by our referees and Editors to evaluate your manuscript. Additional information may be appropriate, depending on your study design and objectives.

Excellent guidelines for standardizing and strengthening the reporting of biomedical research are available from the CONSORT, STROBE, and STARD statements. We strongly urge you to consult these guidelines before submitting papers to Preventive Veterinary Medicine. The guidelines are freely available (with considerable elaborations and explanations) at the following websites:

http://www.consort-statement.org (for clinical trials; there are elaborations for cluster designs, reporting of harms, herbal interventions, non-inferiority and equivalence studies, trials of non-pharmacologic interventions, and meta-analyses);

http://www.strobe-statement.org (for observational studies; there is an elaboration for studies of genetic associations);

http://www.stard-statement.org (for evaluations of diagnostic tests).


1. For ALL descriptive and comparative studies:

a. Source of subjects
b. Eligibility criteria
c. Sample-size justification appropriate for the study design and primary hypothesis. This should include details of adjustment for clustering (including the levels of clustering, the assumed cluster size, and either the design effect or the intracluster correlation) if clustering was present.
d. Methods by which the data were acquired
e. Diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of any tests used. (Analytic sensitivity and reproducibility might be appropriate alternatives for some studies.) Correction to the true prevalence is expected for e.g., seroprevalence studies.
f. Descriptions of the observed data (including measures of subject-level variation), stratified on the outcome implied by the primary hypothesis. These descriptions should include time, place, "demographics," and relevant management and health information.
g. Declaration of the experimental unit
h. Descriptions of the formal random mechanism (e.g., lottery or table of random numbers) and the list frame (enumerating every eligible subject and/or cluster) used at any step claimed to be "random"
i. Descriptions of the pilot, repeatability, and validation testing of any questionnaire used to acquire data for the study. Also needed are: the language of the survey instrument, the time it took to complete, how it was administered, the types of questions (e.g., closed, semi- closed, open), and the training of any persons administering the survey. Making a copy available to the review process is desirable (in English as well as the language of administration).


2. For comparative studies (including both observational and intervention studies):

a. Numerical descriptions of all tested risk factors or pre-intervention characteristics of the subjects, stratified on the primary hypothesis/outcome of the study
b. Descriptions of how blindness was accomplished for all subjective evaluations


3. For randomized controlled trials and other intervention studies:

a. Approval by your institution's animal-welfare committee and description of measures taken for rescue analgesia or rescue euthanasia.
b. Methods by which the owners of the animals gave informed consent for their animals to be in the trial
c. Methods used for allocation concealment after the animals were determined to be eligible for random assignment to the various experimental or control groups
d. Description and justification of the "control" group's "treatment" (e.g., standard therapy, placebo to mimic the delivery system in the absence of a standard therapy, or "do nothing" to mimic both the treatment and its delivery)
e. Methods used for active monitoring for adverse effects ("harms")


4. For simulation studies and risk assessments:


a. Distinction between deterministic and stochastic processes
b. Descriptions of (and justifications for) all choices of distributions and their parameter Values
c. Description of numbers, training, experience, and representativeness of any "experts" used to provide opinions
d. Declaration of the stakeholders for any risk assessment
e. Distinction between assumptions, input data, calculations from intermediate steps in the modeling process, and model predictions
f. Descriptions of the assumed chance variation and assumed knowledge uncertainty in the inputs, and methods used to deal with those sources of total uncertainty
g. Sensitivity analyses of key assumptions and of the input variables that had the greatest uncertainty
h. Descriptions of the variability in the "outputs" from stochastic models


5. For statistical-hypothesis tests:

a. Declarations of the unit of statistical analysis and of the dependent ("outcome") variable
b. Alpha and tails, and any methods used to adjust for multiple comparisons (to protect experiment-wise alpha from the problem of multiplicity)
c. Methods used to adjust for clustering within the data
d. Methods used to determine that the statistical assumptions were met (e.g., that the data were Gaussian or that the odds ratio or hazards ratio was constant across the observed range of the risk factor)
e. Methods used to look for collinearities or other interrelationships among the risk factors being tested
f. Methods used to select or to retain risk factors within multivariable models (including the test criterion)
g. Clear declaration of any variables "forced into" the model (not allowed to drop out; this implies a need to account for that factor) or offered to the model on a priori grounds despite any screening results (this implies that the factor was part of a major hypothesis)
h. Description of the goodness-of-fit of any models
i. How missing data were handled