[Continuing eco-pathological survey: the objectives and their accomplishment, the choice and the typology of the herd].

The Continuous Eco-Pathological Survey (EEPC) is a prospective and longitudinal epidemiological inquiry, designed to provide data on the global and special pathology in ovine and bovine species, particularly in the dairy cow. The chief purposes of this survey are: to get a better knowledge of the clinical pathology, observed both by the farmer and the veterinarian if he is consulted and the subclinical pathology, detected by various blood tests on 25% of the adult females in each herd; to look on the possible relationships between the herd frequencies of the major disease, i.e. "pathological associations"; to confirm classical or find out new risk factors linked with the environment of the farms; to propose a global approach for the prevention of the main diseases. In this article, methods of choice for herds and animals, and characteristics of the farms studied are described, and the state of realization of the chief objectives of the work is analysed. Conclusion concerns the future of our global approach of the pathology in ruminants.