Companion animal disease surveillance: A new solution to an old problem?

Abstract

Infectious disease surveillance in companion animals has a long history. However, it has mostly taken the form of ad hoc surveys, or has focused on adverse reactions to pharmaceuticals. In 2006 a Blue Ribbon Panel was convened by the U.S. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to discuss the potential utility of a national companion animal health surveillance system. Such a system could provide fundamental information about disease occurrence, transmission and risk factors; and could facilitate industry-supported pharmaco-epidemiological studies and post-market surveillance. Disease WatchDog, a prospective national disease surveillance project, was officially launched in January 2010 to capture data on diseases in dogs and cats throughout Australia. Participation is encouraged by providing registrants real-time disease maps and material for improved communication between veterinarians and clients. From January to mid-November 2010, an estimated 31% of veterinary clinics Australia-wide joined the project. Over 1300 disease cases - including Canine Parvovirus (CPV), Canine Distemper, Canine Hepatitis, Feline Calicivirus, Feline Herpesvirus, and Tick Paralysis - were reported. In New South Wales alone, 552 CPV cases in dogs were reported from 89 postcode locations. New South Wales data was scanned using the space-time permutation test. Up to 24 clusters (P<0.01) were identified, occurring in all months except March. The greatest number of clusters (n=6) were identified in April. The most likely cluster was identified in western Sydney, where 36 cases of CPV were reported from a postcode in February. Although the project is still in its infancy, already new information on disease distribution has been produced. Disease information generated could facilitate targeted control and prevention programs.

Epidemiology and clinical presentation of canine distemper disease in dogs and ferrets in Australia, 2006–2014

“…Reporting is voluntary and restricted to veterinarians and veterinary practice staff to maximise the reliability of the data. Participation is encouraged through monthly email reminders to report and via support from the Australian Veterinary Association and diagnostic laboratories, including IDEXX laboratories, Vetnostics and Gribbles Veterinary . Information recorded in the Disease WatchDog database includes signalment and vaccination status, geographic location, date and method of diagnosis, and the case outcome.…”

The relationship between the Southern Oscillation Index, rainfall and the occurrence of canine tick paralysis, feline tick paralysis and canine parvovirus in Australia

“…Cases were extracted from Disease WatchDog using data entered by registered clinic staff (Ward and Kelman, 2011). For each case, the following were reported: patient details (species, age, breed, sex, neutered status, vaccination details), case details (date, disease, method of diagnosis, case outcome), and location (suburb, state, region, postcode).…”

“…Disease WatchDog 2 is an Australian national companion animal health surveillance system, launched in January 2010, that logs spatial and temporal data relating to the incidence of several companion animal diseases, including tick paralysis and canine parvovirus (Ward and Kelman, 2011;Ling et al, 2012;Eppleston et al, 2013). The system relies on registered users (veterinary personnel) reporting disease cases regularly via a web-based interface (Ward and Kelman, 2011).…”

“…The system relies on registered users (veterinary personnel) reporting disease cases regularly via a web-based interface (Ward and Kelman, 2011). Users have access to real-time mapping of disease occurrences and outbreaks, and can customise output (such as maps and graphs) to suit their clinic.…”

Evidence in Practice – A Pilot Study Leveraging Companion Animal and Equine Health Data from Primary Care Veterinary Clinics in New Zealand

“…As such, we believe this new approach to surveillance should not be classified as being “syndromic” in nature (37) but rather be perceived as access to a new type of (big) data. To date, such big data on companion animal health have not been immediately available and had to be, with considerable effort, collected outside of the primary veterinary care environment (e.g., through data entry on dedicated websites) (33, 38). However, the overall system design and the nature of the data extracted will ultimately define the characteristics of the surveillance conducted (39).…”