title: Active animal health surveillance in European Union Member States: gaps and opportunities.
abstract: Animal health surveillance enables the detection and control of animal diseases including zoonoses. Under the EU-FP7 project RISKSUR, a survey was conducted in 11 EU Member States and Switzerland to describe active surveillance components in 2011 managed by the public or private sector and identify gaps and opportunities. Information was collected about hazard, target population, geographical focus, legal obligation, management, surveillance design, risk-based sampling, and multi-hazard surveillance. Two countries were excluded due to incompleteness of data. Most of the 664 components targeted cattle (26·7%), pigs (17·5%) or poultry (16·0%). The most common surveillance objectives were demonstrating freedom from disease (43·8%) and case detection (26·8%). Over half of components applied risk-based sampling (57·1%), but mainly focused on a single population stratum (targeted risk-based) rather than differentiating between risk levels of different strata (stratified risk-based). About a third of components were multi-hazard (37·3%). Both risk-based sampling and multi-hazard surveillance were used more frequently in privately funded components. The study identified several gaps (e.g. lack of systematic documentation, inconsistent application of terminology) and opportunities (e.g. stratified risk-based sampling). The greater flexibility provided by the new EU Animal Health Law means that systematic evaluation of surveillance alternatives will be required to optimize cost-effectiveness.
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health Group,Royal Veterinary College (RVC),Hatfield, North Mymms,UK.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bisdorff
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI),Greifswald-Insel Riems,Germany.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schauer
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health Group,Royal Veterinary College (RVC),Hatfield, North Mymms,UK.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: VISAVET Centre,Veterinary faculty,Complutense University (UCM),Madrid,Spain.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Prieto
authors.affiliation: Swedish Zoonosis Centre Department of Disease Control and Epidemiology,National Veterinary Institute (SVA),Uppsala,Sweden.
authors.forename: A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1765-1825
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Comin
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiological Sciences,Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA),Weybridge,UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brouwer
authors.affiliation: Swedish Zoonosis Centre Department of Disease Control and Epidemiology,National Veterinary Institute (SVA),Uppsala,Sweden.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dórea
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health Group,Royal Veterinary College (RVC),Hatfield, North Mymms,UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Drewe
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health Group,Royal Veterinary College (RVC),Hatfield, North Mymms,UK.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hoinville
authors.affiliation: Swedish Zoonosis Centre Department of Disease Control and Epidemiology,National Veterinary Institute (SVA),Uppsala,Sweden.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lindberg
authors.affiliation: VISAVET Centre,Veterinary faculty,Complutense University (UCM),Madrid,Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martinez Avilés
authors.affiliation: VISAVET Centre,Veterinary faculty,Complutense University (UCM),Madrid,Spain.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Martínez-López
authors.affiliation: AGIRs-Animal and Integrated Risk Management Research Unit, CIRAD-French Agricultural Research Center for International Development,Montpellier,France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peyre
authors.affiliation: SAFOSO AG,Liebefeld,Switzerland.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pinto Ferreira
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health Group,Royal Veterinary College (RVC),Hatfield, North Mymms,UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rushton
authors.affiliation: Department of Research and Development,GD Animal Health,Deventer,The Netherlands.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: VAN Schaik
authors.affiliation: SAFOSO AG,Liebefeld,Switzerland.
authors.forename: K D C
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Stärk
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI),Greifswald-Insel Riems,Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Staubach
authors.affiliation: VISAVET Centre,Veterinary faculty,Complutense University (UCM),Madrid,Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vicente-Rubiano
authors.affiliation: Department of Research and Development,GD Animal Health,Deventer,The Netherlands.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Witteveen
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health Group,Royal Veterinary College (RVC),Hatfield, North Mymms,UK.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pfeiffer
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health Group,Royal Veterinary College (RVC),Hatfield, North Mymms,UK.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Häsler
mesh_terms: D000820:Animal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring / Q000662:veterinary*; D005062:European Union; D011200:Poultry; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013552:Swine; D013557:Switzerland
keywords: EU Animal Health Law; One Health; RISKSUR; risk-based; surveillance component