One Health Surveillance

The recent focus on the 'One Medicine' concept has resulted in an increased awareness that the control of diseases in animal populations, whether zoonotic or not, can be of great public health importance. Zoonotic and foodborne diseases represent an immediate threat to the health of human populations, while rapid spreading diseases in animals can compromise the food-supply and the economy of a country or region. On the other hand, animal populations can serve as sentinels, and continued surveillance can prevent the emergence and/or rapid spread of pathogens potentially harmful to humans. However, awareness of the activities developed in the field of animal health is still low among public health workers. To date, the cooperation between public health and animal health epidemiologists has mainly involved the control of outbreaks of foodborne diseases. Greater cooperation between the two fields, however, could improve prevention and reduce the number of such outbreaks.

Objective

To discuss opportunities to improve the synergy between animal and public health and increase awareness, among public health workers, of the concept of animal health.

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.

Syndromic surveillance of livestock animals at points of concentration, such as livestock markets, has the potential to provide early detection of endemic, zoonotic, transboundary, environmental, and newly emerging animal diseases and to identify animal health trends. In the United States, inspectors at livestock auction markets routinely observe animals for clinical signs of disease, but do not usually document the number of cattle or clinical signs observed. The purpose of this pilot program was to demonstrate the benefit and feasibility of utilizing inspectors at livestock markets to record the total number of animals observed and the number displaying body system-associated clinical signs/syndromes (BSAS). This project is a Federal and State partnership between the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services (VS) and the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC). The livestock market syndromic surveillance pilot project is part of a broader effort in VS to develop and monitor non-traditional animal health surveillance data streams. These data streams include clinical sign information from private veterinary practitioners, veterinary diagnostic laboratory test requests, and livestock slaughter facility condemnations.

Objective

To describe the design and implementation of a syndromic surveillance program in selected cattle markets in Texas, USA.

The Armenian landscape is composed of a complex mountainous relief (400-4095 m above sea level) with several landscape-ecological zones. Fauna diversity is conditioned by ecological factors, 13 families of rodents, and 12 types of vectors. Because of these complex ecological features, many diseases remain endemic in the country. For example, approximately 95% of Armenia is a natural focus for tularemia. Rodents (voles/Microtus socialis) play the most important role in the epizotoology of tularemia. Voles inhabit all the landscape-ecological zones 1400-3300 m above sea level. In addition, 80 types of parasite ticks and fleas are found in all ecological zones of Armenia.

Objective

We have applied GIS methodologies to create a retrospective analysis of tularemia outbreaks in the Republic of Armenia.

The monitoring of whole or partial carcass condemnations can constitute a valuable indirect indicator of herd health (1). Nevertheless, systematic collection and use of such data for epidemiological surveillance is scarce within the European Union (2).

Objective

We evaluate Swiss abattoir data for integration in a national syndromic surveillance system for production animals. More specifically, we identify gaps in the current federal meat inspection database and provide suggestions for its improvement.

One of the most significant zoonotic pathogen of bat origin is the rabies virus of the genus Lyssavirus. Lyssaviruses cause fatal encephalitis for which there is no effective treatment . The close association of some people to bats on account of residence, tourism, occupation, the consumption of bats by people in many parts of Nigeria and the public health implication of these remains to be assessed. Thus, the need for surveillance for lyssaviruses in bats is expedient. Surveillance is also particularly important for nonrabies lyssaviruses, because the rabies biologics commercially available do not reliably protect against Lagos bat virus (LBV), Mokola virus (MOKV), and West Caucasian bat virus (WCBV).

Objective

To investigate the evidence of Lyssavirus antigens in the brain tissues of bats and the presence of some lyssaviruses (Lagos bat virus (LBV), Mokola virus (MOKV), Duvenhage virus (DUVV), West Caucasian bat virus (WCBV), Shimoni bat virus (SHBV) and classical rabies virus (CVS) antibodies in the sera of bats from Plateau State, Nigeria.

Tanzania has a disease surveillance infrastructure with national, regional and district offices for human and animal disease surveillance. Electricity shortages and limited communications infrastructure create a challenge for a rapid information exchange of the disease surveillance information. Cell phones revolution provided 75.8% mobile network coverage of the population and 45% of land area in 2005-2013. At the moment 98% of the district centers are covered with the network. The network growth is expected at a pace of 17-25% annually throughout 2015. The following technologies become available for nation-wide use in surveillance: 1) online voice, 2) SMS, 3) mobile web, and 4) Android applications on cell phones. These technologies have different advantages for disease surveillance that are evaluated for proper application.

Objective

In the past few years Tanzania has experienced a cell phone technology revolution presenting new opportunities for disease surveillance improvements. This dynamic environment, challenged with resource constraints and the need for a one-health joint effort for disease surveillance and control, calls for evaluation of technologies for better planning and implementation of future information technology projects in disease surveillance.

In the past year, three major health care organizations – the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Medical Association and the Society for Tropical Veterinary Medicine – have officially endorsed the concept of “One Health” recognizing the continuum of communicable infectious disease from humans to animals and animals to humans. Further, there is widespread recognition that continuous robust surveillance of animals is beneficial not only to animal health but to food safety for humans and for early warning of naturally-occurring novel diseases (all of significance have been zoonotic for the past 20 years in the US and elsewhere) and for detecting bioterrorism events (with only one exception, all human bioterrorism agents are animal diseases.)