title: Surveillance: pointing the way to improved welfare for companion animals.
abstract: In May this year, the VetCompass small animal surveillance project passed a notable milestone and celebrated the half-millionth animal being added to its database. To date, 190 veterinary practices across the UK have shared data on 2,890,973 episodes of clinical care covering 502,712 animals, including 251,771 dogs and 201,802 cats as well as a wide range of other companion animal species. Dan O'Neill describes the project and explains how the data gathered are being used.
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health, Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, North Mymms, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL9 7TA e-mail: doneill@rvc.ac.uk.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: O'Neill
mesh_terms: D000827:Animal Welfare; D000818:Animals; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002415:Cats; D003625:Data Collection; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004285:Dogs; D057805:Pets; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance / Q000662:veterinary*; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology