Veterinary surveillance: Progress implementing the Veterinary Surveillance Strategy
The Veterinary Surveillance Programme is the package of activities that will put the Veterinary Surveillance Strategy into practice over the next ten years. The strategy contains five goals and the work being done under the programme can be aligned with each of these goals.
Strengthen collaborations
Veterinary surveillance involves the collection of a vast range of information. This may include information on animal diseases, animal numbers and their distribution, whether or not people are affected and even weather patterns. This data is used by many different people who need evidence about any potential or actual problems in order to make decisions on what to do about them.
The collaboration goal aims to bring people together, both those collecting and providing the data and those using the data, to form an active network of partners. These partners are working closely with the other goals to produce a co-ordinated approach to standardising information. We are also looking at a more integrated method of commissioning and funding surveillance research and projects. This work will help to reduce any overlaps or gaps in veterinary surveillance. Communication is also an important part of the collaboration goal: what information is communicated, when, in what format, through what channels and at what frequency.
Develop a prioritisation process
The work being done under this goal aims to design and put into practice
a method to prioritise how and what surveillance
activities are carried out. It is based on the use of disease
profiles containing up-to-date and validated information on specific
diseases and conditions. It is planned that the profiles will provide
the evidence for future surveillance activities and that the evidence
will be freely available to anyone interested. Progress
with developing a prioritisation process 
(669 KB) was recently described at the ISVEE 2006 Conference in Australia.
The work being done under this goal aims to design and put into practice a method to prioritise how and what surveillance activities are carried out. It is based on the use of disease profiles containing up-to-date and validated information on specific diseases and conditions. It is planned that the profiles will provide the evidence for future surveillance activities and that the evidence will be freely available to anyone interested.
Obtain better value from surveillance information
The key to better value is to improve the handling and sharing of information. RADAR will bring together data from many existing data systems and sources to produce integrated analyses and reports. RADAR is being built in four phases and we are currently planning Phase 2.
Share information more widely
RADAR has been designed to be user friendly and easily accessible. In addition to gathering together surveillance data, it will be able to generate surveillance reports. The value and take up of the information can then be monitored and discussed with those using it so that the reports remain relevant.
Quality assurance
To make the best use of data from a wide range of sources, the private sector and interested parties are working with us collaboratively to help improve and assure the quality of data used in animal health and welfare veterinary activities. Effective policy relies on good evidence and decision makers depend on reliable surveillance data on which to base important strategic decisions. In partnership with interested parties, we have drawn up a Quality Framework that aims to act as a means of reference so that data providers and users can access key documents and guidance that will describe and assure the quality of data. We have also developed a Joint Code of Practice for veterinary activities that aims to standardise and improve confidence in data obtained from diverse sources. Quality flags are also being developed that will enable users to better judge the level of reliability of data in surveillance reports.
Further information
- What's new on the veterinary surveillance web pages.
- Veterinary Surveillance Strategy - provides more detail about the strategy.
- What the Veterinary Surveillance Strategy will do for you - identifies who can benefit from the Strategy and what those benefits could be.
- Getting involved - describes
how different interests are represented on the implementation of the
Strategy.
- Glossary
Page last reviewed: July 9, 2007
Page last modified:
August 28, 2008