What is Veterinary Surveillance?
What do we mean by veterinary surveillance?
Veterinary surveillance is the term used to describe everything we do to collect information about diseases affecting animals. Not just farm animals, but pets and wildlife too. We are not only interested in disease caused by organisms such as bacteria and viruses, we also need information on animal welfare problems and poisonings.
Animals can also carry infections, which may have no effect on the animal, and yet still be a threat to human health. We need to monitor them too. An equally important part of veterinary surveillance is making sure that the information collected gets to those who need it.
Veterinary surveillance - why do we do it?
We need to monitor diseases in animals so that we can detect important or unusual conditions as quickly as possible. This is to make sure we can take any action that may be needed. We may have to take steps to protect human health. An example would be a severe outbreak of salmonellosis, a food poisoning bacterium, in a dairy herd, that might get into the milk. It is important to detect diseases such as foot and mouth disease at an early stage to stop them spreading and eliminate them from the animal population. An unusual disease may turn out to be a new one which has never been seen before. In this case we may need to carry out urgent research into the condition to work out how big a threat it is to both animals and man.
Some diseases may confirm contamination of the animal’s feed or
water. This could alert us to an environmental problem. Countries to which
we export animals or animal products may want us to prove that certain
diseases are absent, so they don’t risk bringing a disease in to
their own country when they import animals or products from us. Other
countries may have diseases that are not present here. Dogs and cats taken
abroad may bring back infections. Disease in wildlife may highlight a
possible threat to farm animals.
Cases of poisoning in animals may show there is a risk of contaminants
getting into human food. Monitoring diseases also helps us to detect situations
where changes in the way animals are kept cause a deterioration in animal
welfare.
Veterinary surveillance covers other areas too. For example, there is growing concern about the development and spread of resistance to drugs that are used to treat infections in both animals and people (antimicrobial resistance or AMR). This means that surveillance of AMR is a high priority. Also the use of veterinary medicines may occasionally cause unexpected reactions in the treated animals. These ‘suspected adverse reactions’ are monitored and reported.
Some medicines that are used to treat food producing animals or fish may leave residues if the correct withdrawal period (the time elapsing between treatment and slaughter) is not followed. Surveillance is carried out to detect possible residues in meat, fish, eggs, honey and milk . Finally there is a danger that illegally imported meat brought into the UK could carry disease that could threaten the health of our animals. Strict controls on importation and ongoing surveillance to pick up illegal activity are in place.
Veterinary surveillance - who does it?
The
animal owner is likely to be the first to notice something wrong, so is
the first link in the chain. Ramblers and hikers may notice problems in
wildlife or grazing farm animals. Volunteer groups such as bird-watchers
may report observations they have on wildlife. Veterinary surgeons inspect
animals on farms, at markets, at agricultural shows or at slaughterhouses
for signs of disease. Private vets know a lot about diseases in their
area and can use this knowledge to advise their clients and help us watch
out for anything new.
Vets may send samples for testing, or dead animals for post mortem examination,
to the laboratories of the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA), the Scottish
Agricultural College (SAC) or the Veterinary Science Division in Northern
Ireland. Samples from horses and small animals may be sent to the laboratories
of the Animal Health Trust (AHT). Many private veterinary practices have
their own facilities for testing samples. Other private laboratories may
also collect useful information.
Not all diseases need laboratory tests. At present there is no official
collection of information from these diseases. However a private organisation
called the National Animal Disease Information Service (NADIS) does collect
information on diseases in animals observed and treated by their members.
The Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) inspects all animals (except fish) which
are slaughtered for human consumption. Many organisations, including Defra
and the Institute for Animal Health collect information about diseases
present in other parts
of the world so they can warn us of risks we might face. Many welfare
charities and organisations respond to information supplied by the public.
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) coordinate the surveillance programmes for monitoring both the presence of residues of veterinary medicines in food and the Suspected Adverse Reaction Surveillance Scheme (SARSS), which records unexpected reactions to veterinary medicines in both animals and people. VLA carry out tests on samples to check for antimicrobial resistance. Both Defra and the Scottish Executive have plans in place to monitor antimicrobial resistance. HM Customs and Excise have responsibility in the detection and seizure of illegal meat imports.
Where is the surveillance information?
All the diagnoses made by VLA and SAC are recorded on a database called
Veterinary Investigation Diagnoses Analysis (VIDA). Annual summaries of
VIDA data are published. Monthly summaries of interesting cases are published
in the Veterinary Record.
The VLA publish both monthly and quarterly surveillance reports covering
England and Wales. SAC publishes monthly reports covering Scotland. The
AHT publish a quarterly disease surveillance report on equines. Results
of monitoring for many diseases are published each year in the Report
of the Chief Veterinary Officer.
More detailed information on the monitoring of antimicrobial resistance, residues, adverse reactions and illegal meat imports can be found below.
- Defra Surveillance for AMR
- Scottish
Action Plan for AMR
- VLA AMR
- VMD SARSS
- VMD Residues Surveillance
- Defra Food & Plant Imports
Further information of importance in the surveillance of disease affecting animals can be obtained by other methods. These may include surveys, studies or research commissioned by Defra or other organisations. Information on specific studies can be found below.
Further information
- Other websites - These sites may be useful
if you are interested in further information about veterinary surveillance
in the UK. Please note that Defra does not necessarily endorse the content,
information or opinions of these sites.
December 12, 2006
Page last reviewed:
December 12, 2006
Page last modified: August 31, 2006