Veterinary surveillance: Surveillance reports
What are surveillance reports?
These are summaries and statistics of animal-related information. They include information on:
- the size and structure of animal populations
- the presence and amount of disease in animal populations
- the geographical location of the cases of disease.
Surveillance reports summarise the number of cases of reported diseases or the detection of new or emerging diseases in animals. They may show both the current situation and changes that have occurred over time. They can be presented in a number of formats; these are usually in the form of tables, charts, graphs and maps. These outputs can also be divided into specific areas using a number of different geographical units.
Why do we need surveillance reports?
These reports are used to understand where disease exists in animal populations and whether it is spreading or not.
The information is used to warn animal keepers about the presence of disease locally so that they can protect their own animals. Others use these reports to plan and carry out control strategies against diseases in order to protect populations of animals and humans.
Surveillance reports also inform the international community of the disease status of animals in the UK. This information is used as part of the certification required for international trade of animals and animal products. It also enables the UK to control the importation of animals from countries where diseases exotic to the UK are present.
When are surveillance reports made?
Surveillance reports may be produced regularly (for instance annually or monthly) or occasionally (also known as ‘ad hoc’).
When new reports are made they will be published on this webpage.
A summary of the surveillance results and reports for Great Britain are published each year in the Report of the Chief Veterinary Officer.
In time you will be able to request new surveillance reports provided that the data is available in RADAR and that the data sharing protocol and data confidentiality are not breached.
Who needs surveillance reports?
Surveillance reports are used by many people and organisations. These include:
- Government – to enable policy and action to control animal
diseases (including zoonoses) at local, national and international levels.
Many government committees and reports use the information that is provided
in these reports
- Industry (for example food producing companies) – which can
apply disease control measures and reduce the risk of producing contaminated
food
- Farmers – who are informed of where diseases are present and
can take measures to protect their animals from becoming infected
- Vets – so that they can provide advice to farmers and other
animal keepers on animal disease control
- Wildlife wardens – who can monitor the health of wildlife populations and understand the role of wildlife in disease spread.
How are surveillance reports produced?
Epidemiologists and statisticians analyse RADAR data to answer surveillance questions.
Because reports are summaries of information, the interpretation of reports requires a clear understanding of how the data was collected and analysed. Each report will be produced together with this metadata which will be produced in a standard format.
Further information
Page last modified:
September 9, 2008