These lecture notes on “Introduction and Importance of Statistics and Biostatistics” were prepared and delivered to my undergraduate students studying Animal Genetics & Breeding course. This course was offered in the second professional year of Bachelor of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry degree at College of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, S.V.P.U.A.T, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. My wish to devote time in writing this lecture notes originated from the inquisitive faces of budding Veterinary doctors that why Biostatistics got a place in the Veterinary curriculum. I have tried to explain how application of statistics has leveraged various subjects in their present form. Use of diagrams, explanatory boxes, tables have deliberately been used throughout the notes to create an interest among the students. Once through with these lecture notes readers will be able to understand the basics and importance of this subject. I had tried my level best to simplify the concept in easy to understand language.We understand from this lecture that statistics had been used in various subjects since ages. This subject bears the capability of deducing meaningful information from the data. This meaningful information can be numerically defined and represents the characteristics of the original data. We have studied that various people have defined statistics in singular and plural form. The singular form of statistics represents data, whereas plural form represents statistical procedures. The definitions given by Horace Secrist in singular and by Croxton and Cowdene in plural form gives a better idea about the meaning of statistics. Statistics have traversed along timeline starting 5 BCE with the discovery of mode to discoveries of variance, experimental designing etc. in 19-20 CE. Statistics can be divided into Parametric and Nonparametric types based on distribution of data. Whereas it is divided into Descriptive, Correlational and Inferential statistics based on the function. Statistics have found its importance and use in various subjects like Administration, Social Science, Mathematics, Engineering, Commerce, Accounting, Research and Biology etc. We have studied how the subject of Biostatistics emerged when Statistics had been applied on biological data since ages. The biostatistics over the time has developed its symbiont space with subjects like Genetics, Breeding, Public Health, Epidemiology, Nutrition, Clinical Trials and Pharmacology etc. Finally under limitations of statistics, we have studied that statistics is not a solution for all the problems rather it provides a pragmatic approach to solve a problem. One has to finally apply his own wisdom of knowledge to come to a conclusion.
