Detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Sekong Province Lao PDR 2018-Potential for improved surveillance and management in endemic regions.

Significant global efforts have been directed towards understanding the epidemiology of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) across poultry production systems and in wild-bird reservoirs, yet understanding of disease dynamics in the village poultry setting remains limited. This article provides a detailed account of the first laboratory-confirmed outbreak of HPAI in the south-eastern provinces of Lao PDR, which occurred in a village in Sekong Province in October 2018. Perspectives from an anthropologist conducting fieldwork at the time of the outbreak, clinical and epidemiological observations by an Australian veterinarian are combined with laboratory characterization and sequencing of the virus to provide insights about disease dynamics, biosecurity, outbreak response and impediments to disease surveillance. Market-purchased chickens were considered the likely source of the outbreak. Observations highlighted the significance of a-lack-of pathognomonic clinical signs and commonness of high-mortality poultry disease with consequent importance of laboratory diagnosis. Sample submission and testing was found to be efficient, despite the village being far from the national veterinary diagnostic laboratory. Extensively raised poultry play key roles in ritual, livelihoods and nutrition of rural Lao PDR people. Unfortunately, mass mortality of chickens due to diseases such as HPAI and Newcastle disease (ND) imposes a significant burden on smallholders in Lao PDR, as in most other SE Asian countries. We observed that high mortality of chickens is perceived by locals as a new 'normal' in raising poultry; this sense of it being 'normal' is a disincentive to reporting of mortality events. Establishing effective people-centred disease-surveillance approaches with local benefit, improving market-biosecurity and veterinary-service support to control vaccine-preventable poultry diseases could all reduce mass-mortality event frequency, improve veterinary-producer relationships and increase the likelihood that mortality events are reported. Priority in each of these aspects should be on working with smallholders and local traders, appreciating and respecting their perspectives and local knowledge.

New approaches to aquatic and terrestrial animal surveillance: The potential for people and technology to transform epidemiology.

Epidemiology provides insights about causes of diseases and how to control them, and is powered by surveillance information. Animal health surveillance systems typically have been designed to meet high-level government informational needs, and any incentives for those who generate data (such as animal owners and animal health workers) to report surveillance information are sometimes outweighed by the negative consequences of reporting; underreporting is a serious constraint. This problem can persist even when modern advances in information and communications technology (ICT) are incorporated into the structure and operation of surveillance systems, although some problems typical of paper-based systems (including timeliness of reporting and response, accuracy of data entry, and level of detail recorded) are reduced. On occasions, however, additional problems including sustainability arise. We describe two examples of a philosophical approach and ICT platform for the development of powerful and sustainable health information systems that are people-centred and do not exhibit these typical problems. iSIKHNAS is Indonesia's integrated animal health information system, and PIISAC is a sustainable secure research platform based on full production data from participating commercial Chilean aquaculture companies. Epidemiologists working with these systems are faced with interesting new challenges, including the need to develop skills in extracting appropriate surveillance outcomes from large volumes of continually-streaming data.

A campaign to eradicate bovine babesiosis from New Caledonia.

In December 2007, Babesia bovis was introduced to New Caledonia through the importation of cattle that had been vaccinated with a live tick fever (babesiosis and anaplasmosis) vaccine. Although the tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus is common in New Caledonia, the territory had previously been free of tick-borne diseases of cattle. This paper describes the initial extent of the outbreak, the measures and rationale for disease control, and the progress to date of the eradication campaign. Initially, 22 properties were affected involving approximately 2300 cattle in 'high risk' zones and 1600 in adjoining 'suspect' zones. Rather than slaughtering infected herds or attempting to eliminate the tick vector, the campaign was based on quarantine of affected properties, and aggressive tick control in conjunction with 3-monthly treatments of the high risk cattle with the antiprotozoal drug imidocarb dipropionate. Subsequent surveillance by ELISA and PCR showed a progressive and dramatic decline in seroprevalence among infected herds and the absence of new infections. All 22 properties were considered to be free of Babesia within 12 months of the start of the disease control program. These results indicate that the strategy was effective in eliminating Babesia from infected herds and feasible as an eradication strategy on a moderately large scale. Unfortunately, early in the campaign, babesiosis spread to a herd of feral cattle on a property in the 'suspect' zone, and this reservoir of infection subsequently resulted in the infection (or reinfection) of cattle on several neighbouring commercial farms. The eradication campaign in New Caledonia is currently focussed on destocking the feral cattle - extensive surveillance suggests that this is the only remaining nidus of infection.

Surveillance of H5 avian influenza virus in wild birds found dead.

Wild birds are suspected to play a role in the spread of avian influenza H5N1; however, much remains unknown about the ecology and epidemiology of H5N1 in wild birds. Lake Constance is an important wetland area and was a focus for surveillance of dead wild birds between February and June 2006. Dead wild birds collected from the lake and surrounding regions were tested for avian influenza H5. This article provides a descriptive and spatial analysis of the data collected during this period and includes discussion of the strengths and limitations of this type of surveillance. The sampling of dead birds may provide a rapid and cost-effective means of detecting the presence of H5N1; however, such sampling is prone to certain biases and lacks sensitivity in detecting asymptomatic infections. The benefit of such surveillance will be enhanced by detailed ornithologic information, greater accuracy of spatially referenced data, and quantification of surveillance effort.