For the surveillance of zoonoses a vast amount of digital data is routinely being collected on three sectors, humans, animals and food. Depending on the origin and the purpose of the data collection, this information is stored in different databases. Interfaces between these data sources are rare. Against the background of One Health and regarding the high costs of collecting new data, there are growing demands to make use of existing data to improve the surveillance of zoonoses. It is particularly required to combine data from different sectors to improve early warning and prompt detection of zoonotic disease events. It is hypothesized that a joint use of information is regarded to be more productive than the traditional segregated sector approach. However, prior to evaluating this, it has to be determined if the existing data are suitable for a joint analysis. Therefore the following questions have to be answered: - Do the data fit the purpose and cover the required information (content, population of interest, detail, time, space) in an adequate quality (i.e. timeliness, accuracy)? - Can they be combined, if they originate from different sources? A systematic description and documentation of the existing datasources and their content is necessary to evaluate the feasibility. Until now, in Germany no inventory exists of those datasources, in which data on zoonoses are routinely collected. In addition to the challenges of a uniform description of datasources from different sectors (human/animal/food), there are difficulties that come along with the federal structures of data collection. In Germany, if not mandatory, data on infectious disease events are not collected nationwide but on a county level. Hence, they are neither consistent, nor is there a one-stop shop for access.
Objective
An inventory of epidemiological data sources in Germany is being conducted to evaluate a possible integration of zoonotic disease information.