Ten years of BSE in Switzerland. The development of an extraordinary disease

The first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Switzerland was diagnosed in November 1990. BSE is--in particular considering its eradication--different from many other livestock diseases. Strict disease control measures were taken from the very beginning by the Swiss authorities in order to protect public as well as animal health. In addition, BSE has stimulated enormous media interest and public concern. The occurrence of the born after the ban (BAB) cases, increasing questions about the zoonotic potential of the disease and trade restrictions against Switzerland led to the "BSE-crisis". In 1999, Switzerland internationally took a leading role in the surveillance of BSE by active investigation of targeted risk population.     

A Qualitative Study of State‐Level Zoonotic Disease Surveillance in New England

Zoonotic diseases are infectious diseases transmittable between animals and humans and outbreaks of these diseases in animals can signify that humans are also infected (or vice versa). Thus, communication between animal and human health agencies is critical for surveillance. Understanding how these agencies conduct surveillance and share information is important for the development of successful automated zoonotic monitoring systems. Individual interviews were conducted with 13 professionals who perform animal or human zoonotic disease surveillance in one of the New England states. Questions centred on existing surveillance methods, collaborations between animal and human health agencies, and technological and data needs. The results showed that agencies routinely communicate over suspected zoonotic disease cases, yet there are barriers preventing automated electronic linking of health data of animals and humans. These include technological barriers and barriers due to sensitivity and confidentiality of information. Addressing these will facilitate the development of electronic systems for integrating animal and human zoonotic disease surveillance data.     

An evaluation of scrapie surveillance in the United States

Animal health surveillance systems should reflect national disease control priorities and promote the best use of public resources by maximizing effectiveness and efficiency. A surveillance system should be routinely evaluated to assess the degree to which the system accomplishes these goals, fulfills its stated objectives, and meets accepted surveillance standards. In the United States, there are a number of disparate endemic disease surveillance and eradication programs. The National Animal Health Surveillance System is a federal initiative designed to combine animal health surveillance and monitoring activities into a comprehensive and coordinated system. A protocol has been developed to facilitate the evaluation of animal health surveillance systems and investigate opportunities for coordination between the different surveillance and eradication programs. The evaluation protocol was based largely on protocols developed for public health but adapted for the specific needs and goals of animal health surveillance. The evaluation process was designed to identify program strengths and areas for improvement and facilitate the system's adaptability to changing situations. The evaluation protocol was applied to the scrapie surveillance system in the United States; scrapie surveillance was found to be an important part of surveillance for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Results from the evaluation of sensitivity, sampling methods and representativeness are presented.     

Evaluation and optimization of surveillance systems for rare and emerging infectious diseases

Surveillance for rare and emerging infectious diseases poses a special challenge to veterinary services. Most emerging infectious diseases like bovine tuberculosis (bTB) are zoonoses, affecting both human and animal populations. Despite the low prevalence of such an emerging infectious disease at time of incursion, the surveillance system should be able to detect the presence of the disease as early as possible. Because passive surveillance is a relatively cost-effective and therefore commonly used process, it is the basic tool for infectious disease surveillance. Because of under-reporting in passive surveillance, cost-intensive active surveillance is often required to increase the sensitivity of the surveillance system. Using scenario tree modelling, the sensitivity of passive and active surveillance system components (SSC) can be quantified and an optimal, cost-effective surveillance system developed considering the contributions of each SSC. We illustrate this approach with the example of bTB surveillance in Switzerland where the surveillance system for bTB consists of meat inspection at the slaughterhouse (SLI), passive clinical surveillance on farm (CLIN) and human surveillance (HS). While the sensitivities for CLIN and HS were both negligible (<1%), SLI was assessed to be 55.6%. The scenario tree model showed that SLI is increasable up to 80.4% when the disease awareness of meat inspectors in Switzerland is enhanced. A hypothetical random survey (RS) was also compared with a targeted survey (TS) in high-risk strata of the cattle population, and the sensitivity of TS was 1.17-fold better than in RS but with 50% of the sample size.     

The application of epidemiology in aquatic animal health -opportunities and challenges

ABSTRACT: Over recent years the growth in aquaculture, accompanied by the emergence of new and transboundary diseases, has stimulated epidemiological studies of aquatic animal diseases. Great potential exists for both observational and theoretical approaches to investigate the processes driving emergence but, to date, compared to terrestrial systems, relatively few studies exist in aquatic animals. Research using risk methods has assessed routes of introduction of aquatic animal pathogens to facilitate safe trade (e.g. import risk analyses) and support biosecurity. Epidemiological studies of risk factors for disease in aquaculture (most notably Atlantic salmon farming) have effectively supported control measures. Methods developed for terrestrial livestock diseases (e.g. risk-based surveillance) could improve the capacity of aquatic animal surveillance systems to detect disease incursions and emergence. The study of disease in wild populations presents many challenges and the judicious use of theoretical models offers some solutions. Models, parameterised from observational studies of host pathogen interactions, have been used to extrapolate estimates of impacts on the individual to the population level. These have proved effective in estimating the likely impact of parasite infections on wild salmonid populations in Switzerland and Canada (where the importance of farmed salmon as a reservoir of infection was investigated). A lack of data is often the key constraint in the application of new approaches to surveillance and modelling. The need for epidemiological approaches to protect aquatic animal health will inevitably increase in the face of the combined challenges of climate change, increasing anthropogenic pressures, limited water sources and the growth in aquaculture. TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1 Introduction 42 The development of aquatic epidemiology 73 Transboundary and emerging diseases 93.1 Import risk analysis (IRA) 103.2 Aquaculture and disease emergence 113.3 Climate change and disease emergence 133.4 Outbreak investigations 134 Surveillance and surveys 154.1 Investigation of disease prevalence 154.2 Developments in surveillance methodology 164.2.1 Risk-based surveillance and scenario tree modelling 164.2.2 Spatial and temporal analysis 164.3 Test validation 175 Spread, establishment and impact of pathogens 185.1 Identifying routes of spread 185.1.1 Ex-ante studies of disease spread 195.1.2 Ex-post observational studies 215.2 Identifying risk factors for disease establishment 235.3 Assessing impact at the population level 245.3.1 Recording mortality 245.3.2 Farm health and production records 265.3.3 Assessing the impact of disease in wild populations 276 Conclusions 317 Competing interests 328 Authors' contributions 329 Acknowledgements 3310 References 33.     

Review of current problems and shortcomings in the Tanzanian animal health information system with suggestions on improvement

Livestock diseases have always been the focus of the Tanzanian Veterinary Authorities. However, they have become more important since the formation of the World Trade Organisation and subsequent implementation of the various multilateral agreements on trade. There is also a strong political desire to improve the animal health status as part of poverty alleviation strategies. As a result there is a need to develop better systems for investigating and reporting of animal diseases. In order to follow the OIE pathway and to obtain a disease free status, reliable evidence of freedom from particular diseases is becoming an issue of major interest. Assessment of the Tanzanian animal health information system revealed two major problems; firstly, the absence of disease information that accurately reflects the health status of the source population, and secondly, an inefficient information management system which is unable to provide useful information on the spatial component of animal health. A strategic approach is proposed that involves the collection of animal health information using active surveillance techniques and the introduction of a geographic information system. This approach should improve the management and reporting of animal health information.     

Epidemiological surveillance of infectious diseases in France

Epidemiological surveillance, namely the continuous monitoring of diseases and health determinants in a population, has developed over the past fifteen years, in the sphere of human health as well as in animal health. All epidemiological surveillance networks include the following four stages: data collection, data transmission, data processing and dissemination of information. However, despite this basic similarity, the very many networks existing in France are extremely varied in nature. At the national level, the bodies involved in epidemiological surveillance for infectious animal diseases are the Direction générale de l'alimentation, the Agence fran?aise de sécurité sanitaire des aliments and, to a lesser degree, the Institut fran?ais de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer. In the field, the networks rely on the Direction des services vétérinaires, veterinary practitioners, laboratories in each département, and livestock producers' groups (especially animal health protection groups). Some twenty French networks currently in operation are presented in this article according to a classification based on published criteria. In the case of human infectious diseases, epidemiological surveillance is carried out almost entirely by the Direction générale de la santé and the Directions départementales d'action sanitaire et sociale, the Institut de veille sanitaire and the various Centres nationaux de référence (CNRs). Most human infectious diseases are monitored by one or more of the following broad categories of networks: reporting of notifiable diseases, the CNRs, the network of sentinel doctors, the network of hospital laboratories and departments, and medical causes of death. An example where surveillance is covered by several networks is also presented, namely surveillance for salmonellosis and Salmonella. Lastly, methods for evaluating networks are discussed.     

Veterinary syndromic surveillance: Current initiatives and potential for development

This paper reviews recent progress in the development of syndromic surveillance systems for veterinary medicine. Peer-reviewed and grey literature were searched in order to identify surveillance systems that explicitly address outbreak detection based on systematic monitoring of animal population data, in any phase of implementation. The review found that developments in veterinary syndromic surveillance are focused not only on animal health, but also on the use of animals as sentinels for public health, representing a further step towards One Medicine. The main sources of information are clinical data from practitioners and laboratory data, but a number of other sources are being explored. Due to limitations inherent in the way data on animal health is collected, the development of veterinary syndromic surveillance initially focused on animal health data collection strategies, analyzing historical data for their potential to support systematic monitoring, or solving problems of data classification and integration. Systems based on passive notification or data transfers are now dealing with sustainability issues. Given the ongoing barriers in availability of data, diagnostic laboratories appear to provide the most readily available data sources for syndromic surveillance in animal health. As the bottlenecks around data source availability are overcome, the next challenge is consolidating data standards for data classification, promoting the integration of different animal health surveillance systems, and also the integration to public health surveillance. Moreover, the outputs of systems for systematic monitoring of animal health data must be directly connected to real-time decision support systems which are increasingly being used for disease management and control.     

Meeting report: panel on the potential utility and strategies for design and implementation of a national companion animal infectious disease surveillance system

This meeting report summarizes the discussions and recommendations of a Blue Ribbon Panel convened by the Science and Technology Policy Institute at the Institute for Defense Analysis on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on 13 September 2006 to discuss the potential utility and possible strategies for design and implementation of a companion animal health surveillance system. The panel comprised representatives from federal agencies, state agencies, academia, professional societies, and the private sector. The panel concluded that a companion animal surveillance system might prove valuable to efforts to protect public health, but that further study of the relationship between companion animal health and human health were needed to assess the utility and potential applications of a companion animal surveillance system. The findings of this panel may be used, along with other important sources of information, to inform policy discussions focussed on identifying strategies for recognizing and monitoring zoonotic disease threats appearing in companion animals in the USA.     

在“同一个健康”框架下,加强兽医与人医合作,有效监测和应对人畜共患病和新发传染病

新发传染病主要是人畜共患病,是世界经济和公共健康的沉重负担。这就要求加强检测、鉴别和监视传染病的能力方面投入。高致病禽流感H5N1、新甲型流感("猪流感")H1N1、非典型性肺炎、西尼罗河病毒、地方流行性狂犬病、布鲁氏菌病以及发展中国家暴发的其它人畜共患病及近期猪抗甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌,是人类、动物及其环境相互作用的典型范例。面临中国动物和人类常见的新发传染病坚持"同一个健康"战略,这就要求业已存在的兽医和人医及公共卫生机构的通力合作。人的疾病控制系统与动物疾病控制系统虽然都已经建立,但人畜共患病的暴发表明兽医机构和人医机构密切合作的重要性。在保证环境健康的同时,通过动物疾病和人类疾病监测系统的密切合作,中国就一定能够控制人畜共患病。以这种方式进行疾病预防、监测与应对,各层面及各动物生产部门间有效的兽医推广是加强和保持健康生态环境中人和动物健康的有效办法。中国还需大量努力才能达到从制度上保证预防和消灭疾病。透明而准确的人与动物疾病监督通常会产生经济且可持续的预防疾病方法。加拿大在兽医、公共健康、食品安全和人畜共患病预防方面所发挥的作用就是与中国农业部合作,促进必要的、可持续的兽医监督网络的建设。     

Establishment of an early warning system against bluetongue virus in Switzerland

Bluetongue (BT) is a vector-borne animal disease of economical importance due to the international trade restrictions likely to be put into place in a country once the infection is discovered. The presence of BT and its vectors in countries adjacent to Switzerland stresses the need of implementing a surveillance system and to raise disease awareness among potential stakeholders. A national survey in Switzerland 2003 indicated freedom of Bluetongue virus (BTV), although a single individual of the main BT vector Culicoides imicola was caught in the canton of Ticino. The survey also demonstrated that potential BT vectors, C. obsoletus and C. pulicaris are locally abundant in Switzerland. Therefore, a new surveillance method based on sentinel herds in high risk areas was implemented in 2004 for the early detection of both an incursion of BT vectors into Switzerland, and potential virus circulation among cattle.     

Zoonotic Disease Surveillance – Inventory of Systems Integrating Human and Animal Disease Information

Although 65% of recent major disease outbreaks throughout the world have a zoonotic origin, there is still a sharp division among the disciplines into the human and animal health sectors. In the last few decades, a global integrative concept, often referred to as ‘One Health’, has been strongly endorsed. Surveillance and monitoring efforts are major components for effective disease prevention and control. As human health and animal health are inextricably linked, it is assumed that a cross‐sectoral data interpretation of zoonotic disease information will improve their prevention, prediction and control. To provide an overview of existing systems throughout the world which integrate information from humans and animals on zoonotic diseases, a literature review was conducted. Twenty projects were identified and described regarding their concepts and realization. They all vary widely depending on their surveillance purpose, their structure and the source of information they use. What they have in common is that they quite often use data which have already been collected for another purpose. Therefore, the challenges of how to make use of such secondary data are of great interest.     

Emerging and exotic zoonotic disease preparedness and response in the United States - coordination of the animal health component

For the response to a zoonotic disease outbreak to be effective, animal health authorities and disease specialists must be involved. Animal health measures are commonly directed at known diseases that threaten the health of animals and impact owners. The measures have long been applied to zoonotic diseases, including tuberculosis and brucellosis, and can be applied to emerging diseases. One Health (veterinary, public, wildlife and environmental health) and all-hazards preparedness work have done much to aid interdisciplinary understanding and planning for zoonotic diseases, although further improvements are needed. Actions along the prevention, preparedness, response and recovery continuum should be considered. Prevention of outbreaks consists largely of import controls on animals and animal products and biosecurity. Preparedness includes situational awareness, research, tool acquisition, modelling, training and exercises, animal movement traceability and policy development. Response would include detection systems and specialized personnel, institutions, authorities, strategies, methods and tools, including movement control, depopulation and vaccination if available and appropriate. The specialized elements would be applied within a general (nationally standardized) system of response. Recovery steps begin with continuity of business measures during the response and are intended to restore pre-event conditions. The surveillance for novel influenza A viruses in swine and humans and the preparedness for and response to the recent influenza pandemic illustrate the cooperation possible between the animal and public health communities.     

Visualization and application of disease diagnosis codes for population health management using porcine diseases as a model

Accurate and timely results of diagnostic investigations and laboratory testing guide clinical interventions for the continuous improvement of animal health and welfare. Infectious diseases can severely limit the health, welfare, and productivity of populations of animals. Livestock veterinarians submit thousands of samples daily to veterinary diagnostic laboratories (VDLs) for disease diagnosis, pathogen monitoring, and surveillance. Individual diagnostic laboratory reports are immediately useful; however, aggregated historical laboratory data are increasingly valued by clinicians and decision-makers to identify changes in the health status of various animal populations over time and geographical space. The value of this historical information is enhanced by visualization of trends of agent detection, disease diagnosis, or both, which helps focus time and resources on the most significant pathogens and fosters more effective communication between livestock producers, veterinarians, and VDL professionals. Advances in data visualization tools allow quick, efficient, and often real-time scanning and analysis of databases to inform, guide, and modify animal health intervention algorithms. Value is derived at the farm, production system, or regional level. Visualization tools allow client-specific analyses, benchmarking, formulation of research questions, and monitoring the effects of disease management and precision farming practices. We present here the approach taken to visualize trends of disease occurrence using porcine disease diagnostic code data for the period 2010 to 2019. Our semi-automatic standardized creation of a visualization platform allowed the transformation of diagnostic report data into aggregated information to visualize and monitor disease diagnosis.     

河南省动物疫病监测预警体系建设的现状及建议

为了有效的防控动物疫病,提高动物疫病的综合防控能力,针对新形势下的动物疫病流行特点,河南省建立了动物疫病监测预警体系。论文介绍了河南省动物疫病监测预警体系的组成部分和监测网络,以及各个监测主体的具体职责。通过对河南省动物疫病监测预警体系现状的分析,指出了此体系中存在的主要问题和不足,并对体系的完善提出了几点建议。     

The situation concerning antibiotic resistance from the viewpoint of the bacteriologist

Already fifty years ago, when antibiotics were introduced, their effectiveness was challenged by certain bacteria which had the ability to resist the bacteriocidal effect of the antibiotics. Development of such resistance is due to selection pressure that results from the use of antibiotics in therapy, particularly in human medicine. In Switzerland, the veterinary public health aspect of this problem has become of current interest. The ban on the use of growth promoters has triggered the need for an update of the statistical information on the phenomena of resistance and the setting up of a surveillance system of antibioresistance in animals and in products of animal origin.     

Epidemiological basis and results of the National Survey 2001 conducted in the Swiss pig population

Free trade with animals and animal products requires transparency concerning health information of animal populations. On the basis of the bilateral agreement with the European Union (EU), Switzerland is obliged to document freedom from Aujeszky's disease (AD) in its pig population by conducting surveys on a regular basis. Such a survey was planned for the first time for the year 2001. In this context, it was evaluated whether additional pig diseases should be included in the survey. This article describes the evaluation procedure for the selection of pig diseases integrated in the survey 2001. Additionally, it reports and interprets the results of this survey. All of the 2537 farms and 41,719 blood samples were tested negative. Therefore, it could be documented with a confidence of 99.98% that the AD-prevalence in Switzerland is below 1%.     

Policy-driven development of cost-effective, risk-based surveillance strategies

Animal health and residue surveillance verifies the good health status of the animal population, thereby supporting international free trade of animals and animal products. However, active surveillance is costly and time-consuming. The development of cost-effective tools for animal health and food hazard surveillance is therefore a priority for decision-makers in the field of veterinary public health. The assumption of this paper is that outcome-based formulation of standards, legislation leaving room for risk-based approaches and close collaboration and a mutual understanding and exchange between scientists and policy makers are essential for cost-effective surveillance. We illustrate this using the following examples: (i) a risk-based sample size calculation for surveys to substantiate freedom from diseases/infection, (ii) a cost-effective national surveillance system for Bluetongue using scenario tree modelling and (iii) a framework for risk-based residue monitoring. Surveys to substantiate freedom from infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and enzootic bovine leucosis between 2002 and 2009 saved over 6 million € by applying a risk-based sample size calculation approach, and by taking into account prior information from repeated surveys. An open, progressive policy making process stimulates research and science to develop risk-based and cost-efficient survey methodologies. Early involvement of policy makers in scientific developments facilitates implementation of new findings and full exploitation of benefits for producers and consumers.     

价值链调查分析技术及在疫病防控中的应用

价值链调查分析技术在工业、商业等领域有着广泛的应用,近年来又被引入并推广应用于公共卫生和动物卫生领域。本文介绍了如何开展价值链调查和进行价值链分析,及其在公共卫生和动物疫病防控方面的应用。开展价值链调查一般通过访谈和现场调查的方式获取分析所需信息或数据。价值链分析一般分两个步骤,首先描述整个价值链的组成部分,以及各部分间是如何传递和衔接的,然后分析畜禽价值链链条中可能存在动物疫病风险的节点和链条,根据分析结果定制消除或降低疫病传入、循环、扩散风险的各种措施。目前,价值链调查分析技术已被应用于动物疫病监测系统评价、动物卫生风险评估等领域,为动物疫病防控决策提供了新的视角和依据。未来还需克服其劣势和不足,让价值链调查分析技术能够更好地用于动物疫病防控工作的各个方面。     

National animal health surveillance: Return on investment

A weighted benefit-cost analysis (BCA) supports prioritization of animal health surveillance activities to safeguard animal agriculture industries and reduce the impact of disease on the national economy. We propose to determine the value of investment in surveillance by assessing benefits from: avoiding disease incursion and expansion modified by the probability of occurrence of the disease event, the sensitivity of systems to detect it, and the degree to which we can mitigate disease impact when detected. The weighted benefit-cost ratio is the modified value of surveillance as laid out above divided by the cost of surveillance. We propose flexible, stream-based surveillance that capitalizes on combining multiple streams of information from both specific pathogen based and non-pathogen based surveillance. This stream-based type of system provides high value with lower costs and will provide a high return for the funds invested in animal health surveillance.