Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Evaluation of a veterinary-based syndromic surveillance system implemented for swine.
- Journal:
- Canadian journal of veterinary research = Revue canadienne de recherche veterinaire
- Year:
- 2010
- Authors:
- del Rocio Amezcua, Maria et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of Population Medicine · Canada
Plain-English summary
Veterinarians play a crucial role in spotting disease outbreaks in pig populations. A study was done to see if a new system for tracking health issues in Ontario's pig farms would work well. Seven veterinarians from five clinics participated and shared information over a year. The results showed that the system was generally accepted and provided valuable data, covering about 25% of pig farms in the area. However, to make it even better, improvements in communication, easier data entry methods, more involvement from clinic staff, and financial incentives could help get more timely and complete information.
Abstract
Practicing veterinarians play an important role in detecting the initial outbreak of disease in animal populations. A pilot study was conducted to determine the feasibility of a veterinary-based surveillance system for the Ontario swine industry. A total of 7 practitioners from 5 clinics agreed to submit information from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008. The surveillance program was evaluated in terms of timeliness, compliance, geographic coverage, and data quality. Our study showed that the veterinary-based surveillance system was acceptable to practitioners and produced useful data. The program obtained information from 25% of pig farms in Ontario during this time period. However, better communication with practitioners, more user-friendly recording systems that can be adapted to each clinic's management system, active involvement of the clinics' technical personnel, and the use of financial incentives may help to improve compliance and timeliness.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21197223/