A review of twenty years of equine infectious disease monitoring in Switzerland: past, present and future

Wohlfender, Franziska; Schüpbach, Gertraud; Gerber, V.; Eser, M. Wehrli; Hauser, R.; Meier, H

doi:10.1016/j.jevs.2012.08.196

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…The system’s focus lies on equine diseases that are not notifiable by Swiss law. In 2012, an evaluation of the system showed that it was not representative anymore of the Swiss horse population ( 9 ). A survey performed among veterinarians in order to assess the requirements and expectations for an improved reporting system revealed the following: a majority of veterinarians prefer to report cases electronically; at least half of them are willing to report syndromes in addition to disease cases; many are willing to report events on a daily basis ( 10 ).…”

Section: Methods and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The system is based on a user-friendly online platform (functional since November 2013) and allows registered veterinary practitioners to report and visualize symptoms as well as cases of equine diseases either using computers or portable devices. Further information on Equinella is described in details elsewhere ( 9 ). Unlike FLEKO, Equinella was designed with particular surveillance purposes in mind, and technical solutions for data capture were devised to facilitate a smooth and timely data flow (Figure 2 ).…”

Section: Methods and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Timely Reporting and Interactive Visualization of Animal Health and Slaughterhouse Surveillance Data in Switzerland

et al. 2015

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The reporting of outputs from health surveillance systems should be done in a near real-time and interactive manner in order to provide decision makers with powerful means to identify, assess, and manage health hazards as early and efficiently as possible. While this is currently rarely the case in veterinary public health surveillance, reporting tools do exist for the visual exploration and interactive interrogation of health data. In this work, we used tools freely available from the Google Maps and Charts library to develop a web application reporting health-related data derived from slaughterhouse surveillance and from a newly established web-based equine surveillance system in Switzerland. Both sets of tools allowed entry-level usage without or with minimal programing skills while being flexible enough to cater for more complex scenarios for users with greater programing skills. In particular, interfaces linking statistical softwares and Google tools provide additional analytical functionality (such as algorithms for the detection of unusually high case occurrences) for inclusion in the reporting process. We show that such powerful approaches could improve timely dissemination and communication of technical information to decision makers and other stakeholders and could foster the early-warning capacity of animal health surveillance systems.

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Section: Methods and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methods and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timely Reporting and Interactive Visualization of Animal Health and Slaughterhouse Surveillance Data in Switzerland

et al. 2015

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“…The timeliness of the new electronic system is therefore most likely a significant improvement on its predecessor. Still, our findings were surprising as 45% of the veterinarians surveyed in 2012 said they would be willing to report on a daily basis when cases were observed [13]. While, in an ideal surveillance system, cases would be reported to the authorities on the day they were observed, a reporting timeliness of less than a week remains acceptable for the early detection purpose of the system and is comparable to the reporting delay observed in other animal health data sources [16, 17].…”

Section: Participationmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Equinella was first established in 1990 and primarily focused on the paper-based reporting of non-notifiable† equine diseases by a network of sentinel veterinary practitioners. In 2012, an evaluation of the system showed that it was no longer representative of the Swiss horse population [12] (with only six reports received in 2012); and a survey performed among veterinarians revealed that most veterinarians would prefer to report cases electronically; and that many were willing to additionally report syndromes in addition to disease cases [13].…”

Section: Equinella Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences with a voluntary surveillance system for early detection of equine diseases in Switzerland

et al. 2016

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Clinical observations made by practitioners and reported using web- and mobile-based technologies may benefit disease surveillance by improving the timeliness of outbreak detection. Equinella is a voluntary electronic reporting and information system established for the early detection of infectious equine diseases in Switzerland. Sentinel veterinary practitioners have been able to report cases of non-notifiable diseases and clinical symptoms to an internet-based platform since November 2013. Telephone interviews were carried out during the first year to understand the motivating and constraining factors affecting voluntary reporting and the use of mobile devices in a sentinel network. We found that non-monetary incentives attract sentinel practitioners; however, insufficient understanding of the reporting system and of its relevance, as well as concerns over the electronic dissemination of health data were identified as potential challenges to sustainable reporting. Many practitioners are not yet aware of the advantages of mobile-based surveillance and may require some time to become accustomed to novel reporting methods. Finally, our study highlights the need for continued information feedback loops within voluntary sentinel networks.

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“…The objectives of Equinella are monitoring and early detection of equine infectious diseases in Switzerland through a timely reporting of clinical signs and non-notifiable diseases, as well as the dissemination of acquired information nationally and internationally. In 2011, it was shown that Equinella's paper format reporting system was no longer representative of the Swiss equine population (33), and Equinella was relaunched in November 2013 as an online reporting and information platform (34). This new version consists of two main pillars: (i) the reporting of clinical signs and syndromes for syndromic surveillance and (ii) the reporting of non-notifiable equine infectious diseases (35).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating 5.5 Years of Equinella: A Veterinary-Based Voluntary Infectious Disease Surveillance System of Equines in Switzerland

et al. 2020

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Equine health is important in regard to trade, economy, society, and the veterinary, as well as public health. To reduce the burden of equine infectious diseases internationally, it is important to collect, review, and distribute equine health surveillance data as accurate and timely as possible. Within this study, we aimed at providing a comprehensive descriptive analysis of data submitted to Equinella, a voluntary veterinary-based surveillance system of non-notifiable equine infectious diseases and clinical signs, in Switzerland. This was achieved by reviewing the reports submitted since its relaunch in November 2013 and until April 2019, as well as assessing the data validity, activeness of participating veterinarians, coverage of the equine population, geographical representativeness, and timeliness of the system. In total, 630 reports have been submitted. Data validity ranged between 88.2 and 100%. The coverage of Equinella was assessed to be 50.8% of the Swiss equine population. Over the 5.5 years, of all 102 registered veterinarians, 67 (65.7%) submitted at least one report. On average, these veterinarians submitted 1.7 reports per year (median = 4 reports). More recently, in 2018, approximately only one-third [29 (28.4%)] of all registered veterinarians submitted at least one report. However, 59 (57.8%) have responded to the monthly reminder emails to confirm that they have not observed any relevant clinical case to be reported at least once (median number of confirmation per veterinarian = 9 of 12 reminder emails). The incidence of reports varied between cantons (member states of the Swiss confederation). The median timeliness of report submission was found to be 7 days. Overall, Equinella has been receiving reports since its initiation and contributed continuously to the surveillance of infectious diseases in the Swiss equine population and provided an output for the international equine community. Challenges encountered in achieving a higher number of submitted reports and increasing the coverage of the equine population, as well as the overall activeness of veterinarians, require further work. With our study, we provide a comprehensive overview of a veterinary-based voluntary surveillance system for equine health, assessed challenges of such, and suggest concrete improvements with transdisciplinary approaches for similar veterinary-based surveillance systems.

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A review of twenty years of equine infectious disease monitoring in Switzerland: past, present and future

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Timely Reporting and Interactive Visualization of Animal Health and Slaughterhouse Surveillance Data in Switzerland

Timely Reporting and Interactive Visualization of Animal Health and Slaughterhouse Surveillance Data in Switzerland

Experiences with a voluntary surveillance system for early detection of equine diseases in Switzerland

Evaluating 5.5 Years of Equinella: A Veterinary-Based Voluntary Infectious Disease Surveillance System of Equines in Switzerland

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