Proposed criteria to determine whether a territory is free of a given animal disease.
This text describes the general principles underlying the concept of disease-free territory and the required statistical basis for the corresponding epidemiological surveillance operations. Among the essential points, it is emphasised that "disease-free" status should be given only under conditions substantiating the absence of infection (or infestation) and not simply on basis of a known low level of infection (or infestation). This manuscript also raises concerns about possible confusion that has arisen between the inevitable requirement to set a threshold on the level of detection of epidemiological surveillance tools, for economic reasons, and the acceptance of a level of infection (or infestation) that is known, but occurring below the accepted threshold, when according the official status of "territory-free from a given disease". In such a situation, it would be preferable to accord the status of "territory where the disease is in the process of eradication".
Dufour
B
B
Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire des Aliments (AFSSA), Unité d'Appui Epidémiologique à l'Analyse de Risque, Maisons-Alfort, France. b.dufour@afssa.fr
Pouillot
R
R
Toma
B
B
D000820:Animal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000818:Animals; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012015:Reference Standards; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity