Mass gatherings can result in morbidity and mortality from communicable and non-communicable diseases, injury, and bioterrorism. Therefore, it is important to identify event-related visits as opposed to community-related visits when conducting public health surveillance. Previous mass gatherings in Virginia have demonstrated the importance of implementing enhanced surveillance to facilitate early detection of public health issues to allow for timelyresponse.

Identifying, solving, and stopping foodborne outbreaks in the U.S. requires the collaboration and coordination of multiple federal agencies and centers as well as state and local authorities. FDA’s Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation (CORE) Network is responsible for outbreak surveillance, response, and post-response activities related to incidents involving multiple illnesses linked to FDA-regulated food.

Since the majority of emerging infectious diseases over the past several decades have been zoonotic, animal health surveillance is now recognized as a key element in predicting public health risks. Surveillance of animal populations can provide important early warnings of emerging threats to human populations from bioterrorism or naturally occurring infectious disease epidemics. This study investigated current animal data collection and surveillance systems, isolated major gaps in state and national surveillance capabilities, and provided recommendations to fill those gaps.