Evaluation of farmers’ diagnostic performance for detection of diarrhoea in nursery pigs using digital pictures of faecal pools

Table 1 Diagnostic performance of farmers and veterinarians

		Mean	SD
Proportion of faecal pools assessed as diarrhoeic	Farmers	0.48	0.11
Proportion of faecal pools assessed as diarrhoeic	Veterinarians	0.48	0.11
Proportion of correctly classified faecal pools*	Farmers	0.84	0.09
Proportion of correctly classified faecal pools*	Veterinarians	0.87	0.07
Diagnostic sensitivity for detection of diarrhoeic faecal pools*	Farmers	0.83	0.16
	Veterinarians	0.85	0.14
Diagnostic specificity for detection of diarrhoeic faecal pools*	Farmers	0.86	0.13
	Veterinarians	0.89	0.11

Mean (SD = standard deviation) diagnostic performance of farmers (n = 119) and veterinarians (n = 18) in assessment of diarrhoea in growing pigs using 16 digital pictures of faecal pools.
*For each observer the diagnostic sensitivity was calculated as the number of digital pictures assessed as diarrhoeic divided by the true number of digital pictures displaying diarrhoeic faecal pools. The diagnostic specificity was calculated as the number of digital pictures assessed as normal divided by the true number of digital pictures displaying normal faecal pools. Faecal dry matter ≤18% was reference standard for classification of individual faecal pools.

ISSN: 1751-0147