A statistical analysis, with a proxy for public TCs, is combined with an analysis of stakeholder perceptions (excluding farmers) concerning public TC influencing factors.
However, the cohort recruitment methods employed in both countries were likely to exclude farmers.
Comparing participating farmers with excluded farmers and drop outs no significant differences were found between the two groups on the general variables, KAP variables or symptoms of poisoning after spraying.
For example, mortality studies run a potential risk of excluding farmer "spouses" from their samples, as many who do engage in farm work may not be identified as farmers on their death certificates, substantially deflating the number of women cases identified through surveillance programs.
To exclude hobby farmers, only sheep farmers who had ten or more breeding sheep were considered for selection.
Forty-six farms were excluded; 24 farmers did not respond or could not specify the use of milk replacers; and 22 farms had either closed or farmers did not respond for miscellaneous reasons.
Finally, it cannot be completely excluded that farmers in eastern Ontario have different social contacts or sources of information than producers in the western part of the province, and would consequently have a different sensitivity or threshold to declare herds PCVAD-positive.
As this is an area of extremely low transmission, more than one infectious bite within 1 month is unlikely, though it cannot be excluded as farmers often stay overnight in their forest fields, where they are at higher risk of exposure to the main vector, Anopheles dirus (44, 45).
Nevertheless, most of them are rather appropriate for developed countries as they have considerable data requirements and often aim at optimizing farm resources, excluding the farmer's household from the system.
