Veterinary syndromic surveillance using swine production data for farm health management and early disease detection.

The use of syndromic surveillance (SyS) has grown in animal health since the 2010s, but the use of production data has been underexplored due to methodological and practical challenges. This paper aimed to tackle some of those challenges by developing a SyS system using production data routinely collected in pig breeding farms. Health-related indicators were created from the recorded data, and two different time-series types emerged: the weekly counts of events traditionally used in SyS; and continuous time-series, where every new event is a new observation, and grouping by time-unit is not applied. Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) and Shewhart control charts were used for temporal aberration detection, using three detection limits to create a "severity" score. The system performance was evaluated using simulated outbreaks of porcine respiratory and reproduction syndrome (PRRS) as a disease introduction scenario. The system proved capable of providing early detection of unexpected trends, serving as a useful health and management decision support tool for farmers. Further research is needed to combine results of monitoring multiple parallel time-series into an overall assessment of the risk of reproduction failure.

One Health Surveillance: perceived benefits and workforce motivations.

One Health Surveillance (OHS) implements the One Health approach to improving health by collecting data and producing information to support integrated action across the animal health, human health and environment sectors. The purpose of this study was to survey the biosurveillance community to assess its OHS practices and capabilities, its attitudes towards OHS (perceived value), and the factors that motivate its members to implement OHS practices. The authors used a convenience sample of 185 professionals from multiple domains and 44 nations. They examined the extent to which these professionals implemented OHS, gathered their opinions on the value of OHS, assessed their perceptions of the capacity to perform specific OHS tasks and identified their priorities for change. Over 85% of all respondents said that they considered OHS to be beneficial, with no significant differences between work domains or country income groups; over 50% indicated that they already applied OHS. Obtaining access to data collected by other domains was both the most frequent challenge and the most difficult to improve. The highest priority for improvement was having the ability to send and receive electronic data. Respondents from low-income or middle-income countries were more motivated to make improvements than stakeholders from high-income countries. These findings provide a snapshot of current opinions and practices and, together with suggestions for improvements from professionals in the field, can help to target priority needs for OHS information, training and resources.

La surveillance Une seule santé opérationnalise la méthode Une seule santé pour une meilleure santé à travers la collecte de données et la production d'informations visant à soutenir la mobilisation transversale des secteurs de la santé animale, de la santé publique et de la santé environnementale en vue d'une action intégrée. Les auteurs présentent les résultats d'une enquête menée auprès des professionnels en charge de la biosurveillance afin d'évaluer leurs pratiques et capacités en matière de surveillance Une seule santé, leurs attitudes à l'égard de cette surveillance (c'est-à-dire leur perception de l'intérêt de la démarche) et les facteurs susceptibles de les motiver à la mettre en oeuvre. Les auteurs ont procédé à un échantillonnage de commodité de 185 intervenants issus de plusieurs secteurs dans 44 pays. Ils ont ensuite analysé le niveau de mise en oeuvre de la surveillance Une seule santé chez ces intervenants, recueilli leurs opinions concernant l'intérêt de la démarche, évalué la perception qu'ils avaient de leur capacité à mener à bien certaine tâches spécifiques dans ce domaine et identifié leurs priorités en vue du changement. Plus de 85 % des répondants ont déclaré considérer la surveillance Une seule santé comme étant bénéfique, résultat ne présentant pas de corrélation significative avec le secteur professionnel des personnes interrogées ni avec le niveau de revenu de leur pays ; plus de 50 % des répondants ont par ailleurs indiqué qu'ils appliquaient déjà les principes d'une surveillance Une seule santé. La difficulté la plus fréquente et qui paraissait la plus difficile à résoudre était celle de pouvoir accéder aux données enregistrées par d'autres secteurs. La première des priorités identifiées en vue d'une amélioration concernait la capacité d'envoyer et de recevoir des données électroniques. La motivation à introduire des améliorations était plus forte chez les répondants des pays à revenu faible ou intermédiaire que chez les parties prenantes des pays à revenus élevés. Ces résultats, qui offrent un instantané des opinions et des pratiques actuelles assorti de propositions concrètes d'amélioration formulées par les professionnels de terrain devraient pouvoir contribuer à cibler les besoins prioritaires en matière d'information, de formation et de ressources dédiées à la surveillance Une seule santé.

Practicar la vigilancia en clave de Una sola salud significa traducir esta idea en la práctica con el fin de mejorar la salud reuniendo datos y generando información a partir de la cual actuar de forma integrada en los sectores de la sanidad animal, la salud humana y el medio ambiente. Los autores describen un estudio de los círculos dedicados a la vigilancia biológica que tenía por objetivo evaluar sus procedimientos y capacidades de vigilancia en clave de Una sola salud, sus actitudes al respecto (valor atribuido) y los factores que los motivan a instaurar procedimientos concebidos desde la lógica de Una sola salud. Para ello los autores utilizaron una muestra de conveniencia de 185 profesionales de múltiples disciplinas y 44 países. Tras determinar en qué medida esos profesionales practicaban la vigilancia en clave de Una sola salud, les pidieron su opinión sobre la utilidad de este tipo de vigilancia, evaluaron la capacidad que subjetivamente se atribuían de efectuar labores específicas de vigilancia en clave de Una sola salud y determinaron aquellos cambios que esas personas juzgaban prioritarios. Más de un 85% de los encuestados dijo considerar beneficiosa la vigilancia en clave de Una sola salud, sin que se observaran diferencias significativas por ámbito de trabajo o por países según el grupo de ingresos. Más de un 50% afirmó que ya aplicaba este tipo de vigilancia. El problema señalado con más frecuencia y juzgado a la vez más difícil de resolver era el del acceso a datos obtenidos desde otros ámbitos de trabajo. El aspecto que más urgía mejorar era el de la capacidad de enviar y recibir datos electrónicos. Los encuestados de países de nivel bajo o medio de ingresos mostraban mayor motivación a la hora de introducir mejoras que sus homólogos de países de ingresos altos. Estas conclusiones, que ofrecen una «instantánea¼ de las opiniones y prácticas imperantes, pueden ayudar, junto con las propuestas de mejora procedentes de esos profesionales que trabajan sobre el terreno, a seleccionar las necesidades prioritarias de información, formación y recursos para la práctica de la vigilancia en clave de Una sola salud.

Vetsyn: An R package for veterinary syndromic surveillance.

A recent inventory showed that several countries are exploring varied types of animal health sources for the development of veterinary syndromic surveillance (VSS), however, few systems have documented success after the phase of development or exploratory analysis of data. We suggest there are three main challenges in the current development of animal syndromic surveillance: (i) the lack of standards in disease recording and classification; (ii) the development of statistical methods appropriate to deal with animal data; and (iii) the creation of ready-to-use tools that employ these statistical methods. We address the latter two challenges and present an R package - vetsyn - which covers the steps of VSS implementation from classified data to interface. Detailed tutorials are included with the package. The goal is to provide ready-to-use codes to automatize the process of converting pre-classified animal health data into epidemiological information. The package functions are illustrated using real data and simulated outbreaks. Functions to monitor data daily and weekly are available. The main innovation offered by the package is ability to manage data streams, analyses, alarms and user interface in a continuous flow. We expect that this will facilitate the implementation of syndromic surveillance systems by veterinary epidemiologists and surveillance practitioners.

Syndromic surveillance using laboratory test requests: a practical guide informed by experience with two systems.

Syndromic surveillance systems can enhance early disease warning, endemic disease monitoring, or help to accumulate proof of disease freedom. In order to provide immediate feedback to achieve these goals, the health data sources scanned should be acquired continuously, in an automated fashion, and should be stored electronically. Recognizing that data from diagnostic test requests often meet these requirements, two systems designed to automatically extract surveillance information from animal laboratory databases have been developed and are described in this paper. These systems are designed to contribute to early disease detection, as well as the timely management of epidemiological information, in a province of Canada and in Sweden, the areas served by the diagnostic laboratories concerned. Classifying in-coming requests into syndromes, the first step, was the most time-consuming and the least portable step between the two systems. The remaining steps were more easily adjusted from one system to implementation in the other. These steps included: retrospective evaluation of data to create baseline profiles following the removal of excessive noise and aberrations; the identification of temporal effects; prospective evaluation of detection algorithms; and finally real-time monitoring and implementation. Building upon the institutions' existing data management software, all steps to use those data for the purposes of syndromic surveillance were set up using open source software; as a result this approach could be readily adopted by other institutions. Relatively straight-forward development and maintenance is expected to lead to the incorporation of these systems into each institution's surveillance processes, becoming an indispensable tool for diagnosticians and epidemiologists, as well as stimulating further technical development of such systems.

Quantitative exposure assessment of waterfowl hunters to avian influenza viruses.

The potential for direct transmission of type A influenza viruses from wild waterfowl to humans is undefined. This study estimated exposure of hunters to avian influenza virus (AIV) resulting from direct contact with potentially infected waterfowl in Georgia (GA), Louisiana (LA) and Minnesota (MN), and demonstrated variation in the risk of exposure to AIV by hunting location and time. Hunting begins earlier in MN, starting in October, and later in GA and LA, usually starting in November. In addition, the numbers of hunters and birds harvested varies considerably in each state, with LA hosting the largest harvest in the USA Temporal effects resulted in variation of the exposure risk per hunter-day, with a higher risk associated with the earlier months of the hunting season. Exposure risk in locations varied due to AIV prevalence during each hunting season, average bird harvest per hunter-day, and ratio of juveniles/adult birds harvested (higher risk associated with higher ratios). Population risk is discussed based on the exposure risk and number of active hunters in each state per month. The risk of human exposure to AIV was also shown to be temporally distinct from the time of greatest risk of human influenza A infection during circulation of seasonal human influenza viruses, making recombination events due to co-infection unlikely.

Survey of biosecurity protocols and practices adopted by growers on commercial poultry farms in Georgia, U. S. A.

The integrated commercial poultry system is a highly connected network in which routine activities keep farms within a geographic area in constant contact. Consequently, biosecurity practices designed to minimize the transmission of infectious diseases between and within farms are an important component of modern flock health programs. A survey of Georgia poultry growers was conducted in order to assess the level of adoption of standard biosecurity measures by farm personnel and visitors. The results showed that compliance with recommended biosecurity practices did not significantly vary by company, farm size, or number of farms owned by the same grower. However, biosecurity was higher in the northern part of the state, where the density of farms is higher, and where there was an ongoing outbreak of infectious laryngotracheitis at the time of the study. The survey found that growers place more emphasis on biosecurity measures targeting farm visitors than those targeting farm personnel. Most growers reported that all visitors to the farm were required to wear shoe covers, although visitors were not typically required to park outside the farm entrance or to wash tires on their vehicles. No visitor type was reportedly excluded from poultry houses during grow out on all farms. The results highlight the need to evaluate the comparative efficacy of specific biosecurity measures in order to set priorities and attain feasible rates of implementation of targeted biosecurity practices.

Stochastic model of the potential spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza from an infected commercial broiler operation in Georgia.

The potential spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza among commercial broiler farms in Georgia, U. S. A., was mathematically modeled. The dynamics of the spread within the first infected flock were estimated using an SEIR (susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered) deterministic model, and predicted that grower detection of flock infection is most likely 5 days after virus introduction. Off-farm spread of virus was estimated stochastically for this period, predicting a mean range of exposed farms from 0-5, depending on the density of farms in the area. Modeled off-farm spread was most frequently associated with feed trucks (highest daily probability and number of farm visits) and with company personnel or hired help (highest level of bird contact).