Standards for reporting surveillance information in freedom from infection models by example of Trichinella in Canadian market hogs.

Abstract

Freedom from infection modeling, using scenario trees, has become an established methodology and is well described in the literature. However, standards for organizing and reporting the surveillance information incorporated into such models are less developed. Canada has been routinely testing for Trichinella spiralis in market hogs in federally inspected slaughter plants since the late 1990s. By way of presenting our work on T. spiralis in Canadian hogs, we propose that information in surveillance models be organized in distinct categories, each with specific parameters and values that are thoroughly described and justified. The proposed categories are: (1) definitions for the objectives, (2) initial time period, (3) inputs, (4) data, (5) model settings, (6) outputs, and (7) validation. Having a standardized manner of reporting such studies will facilitate their validation and expedite their evaluation by experts in the field and their use in trade negotiations.