There is considerable interest in the literature on disease mapping to interpolate estimates of disease occurrence or risk of disease from a regional database onto a continuous surface. In addition to many interpolation techniques available the geostatistical method of kriging has been used but also criticised. To circumvent these critics one may use kriging along with already smoothed regional estimates, where smoothing is based on empirical Bayes estimates, also known as shrinkage estimates. The empirical Bayes step has the advantage of shrinking the unstable and often extreme estimates to the global or local mean, and also has a stabilising effect on variance by borrowing strength, as well. Negative interpolates are prevented by choice of the appropriate kriging method. The proposed mapping method is applied to the North Carolina SIDS data example as well as to an example data set from veterinary epidemiology. The SIDS data are modelled without spatial trend. And spatial interpolation is based on ordinary kriging. The second example is included to demonstrate the method when the phenomenon under study exhibits a spatial trend and interpolation is based on universal kriging. Interpolation of the regional estimates overcomes the areal bias problem and the resulting isopleth maps are easier to read than choropleth maps. The empirical Bayesian estimate for smoothing is related to internal standardization in epidemiology. Therefore, the proposed concept is easily communicable to map users.

Heat stress is a physiological response to extreme environmental heat such as heat waves. Heat stress can result in mortality in dairy cows when extreme heat is both rapidly changing and has a long duration. As a result of climate change, heat waves, which are defined as 3 days of temperatures of 32 °C or above, are an increasingly frequent extreme weather phenomenon in Southern Ontario. Heat waves are increasing the risk for on-farm dairy cow mortality in Southern Ontario. Heat stress indices (HSIs) are generally based on temperature and humidity and provide a relative measure of discomfort which can be used to predict increased risk of on-farm dairy cow mortality. In what follows, the heat stress distribution was described over space and presented with maps. Similarly, on-farm mortality was described and mapped. The goal of this study was to demonstrate that heat waves and related HSI increases during 2010–2012 were associated with increased on-farm dairy cow mortality in Southern Ontario.

Significance: Although popular companion animals, domestic cats pose numerous problems when free-roaming, including predation of wildlife, hazards to humans, impaired sanitation, and a decrease in their welfare. Thus, managing their populations is essential. The trap–neuter–return method (TNR; capturing, sterilizing, returning/releasing) is widely employed for managing cat populations. However, there is a lack of long-term controlled evidence for its effectiveness. We examined the outcomes of high-intensity TNR by performing a 12-y controlled field experiment. Neutering over 70% of the cats caused population decline when applied over contiguous areas. However, it was limited by a rebound increase in reproduction and survival. These findings provide a robust quantification of the limitations and the long-term effectiveness of TNR.