Veterinary surveillance: Glossary
Outline of page purpose
This page explains the acronyms, abbreviations, and some of the words and expressions used in this website. The definitions we give are focussed on surveillance and so may not be the same as those used by others or given in a standard English dictionary.
Overview
Acronym: A pronounceable name made up of the first letter
or series of letters in a string of words (for example ‘Defra’
is an acronym of the ‘Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs’).
Abbreviation: A shortened form of a word (for example
‘Int.’ is an abbreviation for ‘International’).
List of terms
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
| Full term | Acronym or abbreviation | Definition |
| Animal Health Divisional Office | AHDO | An office where the State Veterinary Service operates. There are 16 AHDOs in England, 3 in Wales and 5 in Scotland. They provide the local contact point for most official Animal Health matters, such as imports or exports, notifiable diseases, farm animal welfare, or compulsory testing programmes. |
| Animal Health Officer | AHO | A technical officer of the State Veterinary Service. AHOs carry out certain statutory inspections on farms and other agricultural premises, and take samples from animals, feed or the environment in support of surveillance programmes. |
| Animal Health Trust | AHT | A registered charity which provides specialist veterinary clinical and laboratory services concerning cats, dogs and horses and including infectious disease surveillance in horses. Other services include research related to disease problems including post mortem examinations, laboratory tests, and outbreak investigatiopns. Results of their work are published. |
| Ante-mortem inspection | A check on live animals which are about to be slaughtered, to make sure the animals are treated humanely and are not suffering from any disease which would make the meat unfit for human consumption. It is carried out at the slaughterhouse by a veterinary surgeon working for the Meat Hygiene Service. | |
| Antibiotic | A substance produced or derived from a microorganism, which selectively destroys or inhibits the growth of other microorganisms. Because compounds such as sulphonamides and quinolones are synthesised chemically, they are not strictly antibiotics. | |
| Antimicrobial | A compound which, at low concentrations, exerts an action against microorganisms and exhibits selective toxicity towards them. The term antimicrobial includes any substance of natural, synthetic or semi-synthetic origin which is used to kill, or inhibit the growth of, microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses). Antimicrobials include antibiotics, disinfectants, preservatives and other substances (e.g. copper, zinc). | |
| Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy | BSE | BSE is one of a group of diseases known as the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies, and is often called “Mad Cow disease”. It is believed to be the cause of vCJD in people. For detailed information see the BSE homepage. |
| British Equestrian Trade Association | BETA | A trade association representing many professional companies in the horse industry. They carry out market research, provide some training courses and information leaflets and promote riding and safety standards. |
| British Horse Industry Confederation | BHIC | The BHIC was set up by the British Horseracing Board, the British Equestrian Federation and the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association in order to represent the British horse industry to Government. Defra and BHIC have published research on the horse industry and are currently consulting on a strategy for the horse industry. |
| British Pig Executive | BPEX | A body set up under the MLC to ensure that the statutory levy paid by pig farmers and processors is used effectively to achieve a more efficient and sustainable pig sector. |
| Cattle tracing system | CTS | A computer database which registers all cattle and their movements. Owners of cattle must report all births and imports of cattle, their subsequent movements and eventual death or slaughter. |
| Census | A survey to count or estimate the number of subjects (for instance, animals or farms) in a population. | |
| Creutzfeld-Jacob disease | CJD | A disease of people which causes progressive degeneration of the brain. It is the commonest human Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy, and occurs naturally in about one person in every million. |
| Data confidentiality | The protected storage, communication or exchange of data which is considered private, normally for ethical or legal reasons. Most modern computer systems normally provide services which ensure that confidential information can only be accessed and read by authorised users or programs. Some data may have a higher degree of confidentiality than others e.g. disease data which can be traced back to an individual. | |
| Data sharing protocol | DSP | A formal agreement between organisations that are sharing data. The agreement sets out the purpose, principles and commitments that organisations should adopt when they share data. |
| Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Defra | The Government Department whose responsibilities include animal disease surveillance. Defra’s overall aim is sustainable development. |
| Disease | This often means only illnesses caused by infections, but veterinary surveillance also deals with other illnesses which are not infectious. It includes poisonings, illness caused by incorrect feeding or management, and welfare problems, as well as conditions (or syndromes) whose cause is unknown. | |
| Disease distribution | The geographical location and extent to which a disease is believed or known to be present. | |
| Divisional Veterinary Manager | DVM | The veterinary surgeon in charge of an Animal Health Divisional Office of the State Veterinary Service. The equivalent in Northern Ireland is called a DVO – Divisional Veterinary Officer. |
| Dog and cat travel and risk information | DACTARI | A voluntary scheme for vets to report exotic diseases of dogs and cats. |
| Emerging disease | A disease which has only recently been discovered, or which was previously rare but now appears to be getting more common, or which is changing in the way it affects animals. | |
| Endemic disease | A disease which is constantly present in a given population or in a given geographical area. It is usually applied to the country as a whole.. Strictly speaking, the word should only be used to talk about human diseases, but is now commonly applied to animal diseases as well. The “proper” word used by specialists to talk about animal diseases is “enzootic”. | |
| Enzootic disease | An animal disease which is constantly present in a given population or in a given geographical area - usually applied to a country as a whole. | |
| Epidemic | An outbreak of disease. As commonly used, the word implies a large outbreak which spreads rapidly. However, epidemiologists use it to mean any number of cases of a disease which is more than expected in a population in a given period of time. So if the disease is normally absent, then just a few cases can be called an epidemic. Strictly speaking, the word should only be used to talk about human diseases, but is now commonly applied to animal diseases as well. The “proper” word used by specialists to talk about outbreaks of animal diseases is “epizootic”. | |
| Epizootic | An outbreak of disease in an animal population. See “epidemic”. | |
| Epidemiologist | Someone who studies the way diseases occur in defined populations of animals or people. The study involves questions like “which animals are affected? How many are affected? When are they affected? Where are the affected animals?” | |
| Exotic disease | A disease which is not usually present in the UK but which does occur in other countries. The most important ones are notifiable diseases. | |
| Food Standards Agency | FSA | The Food Standards Agency is an independent food safety watchdog set up by an Act of Parliament in 2000 to protect the public's health and consumer interests in relation to food. |
| Geographical Information System | GIS | A computer system capable of assembling, storing, manipulating, and displaying geographically referenced information (i.e. spatial data). |
| Geographical location | A place or site that is spatially referenced to the earth's surface. | |
| Hazard | Anything which could cause harm. Spotting possible hazards is one part of veterinary surveillance. | |
| HPA | A new, independent organisation which brings together experts on infectious diseases, poisons, chemicals, and biological and radiation hazards. It provides laboratory services, research, and advice on all aspects of human health and disease control, as well as planning for health emergencies. | |
| Horserace Betting Levy Board | HBLB | A statutory body responsible for collecting a levy on some horserace betting. The money collected is used to improve horseracing and breeds of horses and for the advancement and encouragement of veterinary science and education. |
| Incidence | The number of new cases of a disease which occur in a population in a given period of time. | |
| Institute of Animal Health | IAH | This is the largest research institute in the United Kingdom dedicated to the study of infectious diseases of farm animals. It has three laboratory sites at Compton, Pirbright, and Edinburgh. |
| Local Veterinary Inspector | LVI | A private veterinary surgeon who carries out some work for the State Veterinary Service. |
| Meat Hygiene Service | MHS | An Executive Agency of the Food Standards Agency. It enforces the regulations about hygiene and animal welfare at slaughterhouses, and carries out meat inspection in them. |
| Metadata | Metadata is often described as ‘data about data’. It is like a set of labels about a source of information, similar to those on an everyday product in a supermarket. The supermarket labels describe the product in a way that is useful both to the consumer (e.g. the ingredients) and to the computer systems that control the store (e.g. the barcode). Similarly metadata “labels” can be included with documents or other data sources to give information such as what it is about, how it was collected and by whom etc. This makes it easier for people to find the data and allows computers to process the information effectively. | |
| National Animal Disease Information Service | NADIS | An independent, privately-organised network of about 40 veterinary practices and the six UK veterinary schools. They collect and publish information about animal diseases. |
| Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics | NUTS | The European Office for Statistics has produced a set of definitions of administrative areas, so that statistics from different member states can be related to comparable sized human populations. For instance, in England a NUTS level 3 area is equivalent to a county. |
| Notifiable disease | A disease which must be reported (or “notified”) to the veterinary authorities if anyone suspects that an animal has it. Most of them are exotic diseases, but a few do occur in the UK. |
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| Office International des épizooties | OIE | The world organisation for animal health. It collects and publishes information on animal diseases from 167 countries. To help control the spread of diseases it develops standards for health certificates for the international movement of animals. |
| Official Veterinary Surgeon | OVS | The Veterinary Surgeon who is the team leader of the Meat Hygiene Service hygiene and inspection teams in slaughterhouses and other licensed meat production premises. The OVS is fully responsible for ensuring compliance with the structural, hygiene, inspection, health marking and animal welfare requirements at licensed premises. |
| Passport | A document which contains information about the identity and sometimes the health status of an animal. Cattle passports contain information specified by EU law, and are used to record cattle movements and notify them to the Cattle Tracing System. Horse passports show whether or not the animal’s carcase may be used for human consumption. EU passports for cats, dogs and ferrets under the Pet Travel Scheme show whether the animal is qualified to enter or re-enter the country without going into quarantine. | |
| Pet Travel Scheme | PETS | A scheme which allows cats, dogs and ferrets from certain countries to enter the UK without having to go into a quarantine kennel. It also allows animals from the UK to visit certain countries and return home without quarantine. Details of vaccination and rabies blood tests must be shown on a PETS certificate or EU passport. |
| Population | This usually means the total number of animals of a defined type being considered in a specific area or as a group. Examples of animal populations are “all the lambs in a county”, or “all the badgers in a wood”, or “all the dairy cows in the UK”. Sometimes it refers to a number of farms instead of a number of animals. So the “population” might be “all the pig farms in Scotland”. | |
| Post mortem examination | Tests carried out on the carcases of animals which have died in order to find out the cause of death. | |
| Post mortem inspection | The checks carried out by the Meat Hygiene Service on the carcases of animals slaughtered for human consumption. | |
| Prevalence | The number of cases of a disease which exist in a population at a particular time. | |
| Private veterinary surgeon | PVS | A veterinary surgeon who is “in practice” – in other words, who is available to be consulted by the general public for a fee. |
| Profiles | A set of information about a disease, arranged under a series of standard headings, and intended to be held on a computer database. A full explanation is given on disease profiles page on this website. | |
| Rapid Analysis and Detection of Animal-related Risks | RADAR | RADAR is a new information management system which collects veterinary surveillance data from many different sources around the UK and makes sure they can be used together. It will make it possible to analyse this information and publish reports highlighting threats to public health and animal health and welfare, the risks they pose and the areas at risk. |
| Risk | The chances (or probability) of a hazard actually happening. Veterinary surveillance aims to find and use information to help us work out which are the most important risks. International disease surveillance tells us when and where there are outbreaks of diseases abroad. By using this information we can assess the risk to our animals from importing animals or animal products from other countries, or the chances of migrating wild birds introducing diseases. |
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| Sample | The normal meaning of a sample is a small quantity of blood, urine or other substance taken from an animal to test for a disease. However, it also has a special meaning in surveillance. We cannot usually study the whole of a given population, so we choose a certain number of animals, groups of animals, herds etc from the population. The ones we choose are known as the sample. So a survey for a disease in dairy cows may study all the animals in, say, 100 herds selected from all the dairy herds in the country: we say that we have studied a sample of 100 herds. In order for the results to be meaningful, it is important that the herds in the sample are selected so that they are truly representative of the dairy population as a whole. | |
| Scanning surveillance | All the work involved in keeping a continuous watch over the diseases which occur in animals. It includes inspections at markets and slaughterhouses, monitoring the diagnoses made by private vets and laboratories, and following up reports or information from farmers or the public. The main purpose is to detect anything unusual so that it can be investigated. | |
| Scottish Agricultural College | SAC | A higher education institution in Scotland which specialises in agriculture and other land-based industries. As well as education, it carries out research and provides services and advice. The Veterinary Science Division of SAC carries out post-mortem examinations, laboratory tests and on-farm investigations of disease problems. |
| Screening | Testing all or some of a population to check for evidence of a disease which may not otherwise be apparent. | |
| State Veterinary Service | SVS | The Government organisation which makes sure that Government policies on animal health and welfare are carried out. SVS staff deal with outbreaks of notifiable diseases and carry out tests for these and certain other diseases. They visit farms and markets to check that animal welfare is protected, that medicines are correctly used and stored, and to advise on disease prevention and control. It became a Government Agency on 1st April 2005. |
| Stratified | As applied to the sheep industry, this means that different types and breeds of sheep are kept on different sorts of land – hill, uplands, and lowlands - and used for different purposes. For instance, upland farms commonly cross-breed older ewes from hill farms (such as the Swaledale) with a longwool breed (like the Blueface Leicester) to produce a hybrid ewe. These hybrids are sold to lowland farms for further breeding to produce prime lamb. As applied to a survey, it means that the number of individuals included in the survey is in proportion to different sections in the population being studied. For example, a survey for a disease in dogs might look at blood samples from 1,000 animals. If we knew that, say, 85 % of dogs lived in towns and 15 % lived in rural areas, a stratified survey would look at 850 urban dogs and 150 rural ones. |
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| Syndrome | A condition in which two or more different signs of disease regularly occur together in individual animals or in a population, suggesting that they are both part of the same disease. | |
| Targeted surveillance | This involves carrying out specific projects or surveys to collect information about a particular disease. The aim is usually to estimate how much of the disease there is in a given population of animals, or to provide sound evidence that the disease does not occur. | |
| Tracing | Finding out where an animal has come from or where it has gone, particularly when investigating outbreaks of disease. We need to find the farms which have sent any animals to the affected farm so we can check whether they were the source of the disease. Animals which have left the affected farm may be carrying the disease, so we need to find them so they can be checked. | |
| Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies | TSE | A group of diseases which includes BSE in cattle, scrapie in sheep and variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in people. |
| Variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease | vCJD | A form of CJD which is believed to result from people eating meat from cattle with BSE. |
| Veterinary Investigation Diagnosis Analysis | VIDA | A database which records the results from samples sent to the laboratories of the VLA and SAC. |
| Veterinary Laboratories Agency | VLA | An Executive Agency of Defra. It provides specialist veterinary services and advice to the UK Government, and advisory services to farmers and vets. These include post-mortem examinations, laboratory tests and on-farm investigations of disease problems. |
| Veterinary Officer | VO | A veterinary surgeon who works for the State Veterinary Service. |
| Zoonoses | These are diseases which can affect people as well as animals. Some such as Salmonella are spread by food being contaminated. These are called food-borne zoonoses. Others can be caught by contact with infected animals (like ringworm) or being bitten by them (like rabies). Some diseases (like West Nile Fever) are carried by insects. These are called vector borne zoonoses. | |
| Zoonoses Action Plan | ZAP | A voluntary scheme developed by the pig industry to reduce the amount of salmonella in pigs. Samples are taken from pigs when they are slaughtered. Tests for antibodies to salmonella are used to identify the herds with the worst problem. The farmer is then given advice on how to deal with it. Details are given on the BPEX website. |
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Page last reviewed:
December 12, 2006
Page last modified: August 31, 2006