New approaches to aquatic and terrestrial animal surveillance: The potential for people and technology to transform epidemiology.

Epidemiology provides insights about causes of diseases and how to control them, and is powered by surveillance information. Animal health surveillance systems typically have been designed to meet high-level government informational needs, and any incentives for those who generate data (such as animal owners and animal health workers) to report surveillance information are sometimes outweighed by the negative consequences of reporting; underreporting is a serious constraint. This problem can persist even when modern advances in information and communications technology (ICT) are incorporated into the structure and operation of surveillance systems, although some problems typical of paper-based systems (including timeliness of reporting and response, accuracy of data entry, and level of detail recorded) are reduced.

An assessment of the association between soil pH and ovine Johne's disease using Australian abattoir surveillance data.

There has long been discussion in the literature about the role of soil on ovine Johnes disease (OJD). This is especially true of soil pH, however there is very little research to support an association between pH and OJD prevalence. The primary objective of this study was to examine the hypothesis that there is an association between soil pH and OJD.

An evaluation of Foot-and-Mouth Disease outbreak reporting in mainland South-East Asia from 2000 to 2010.

Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is considered to be endemic throughout mainland South-East Asia (SEA). The South-East Asia and China FMD (SEACFMD) campaign is a regional control programme which has been ongoing since 1997. The programme encourages countries to submit reports of outbreaks regularly.

An evaluation of the sensitivity of acute flaccid paralysis surveillance for poliovirus infection in Australia.

Background: World Health Organization (WHO) targets for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance, including the notification of a minimum rate of AFP among children, are used to assess the adequacy of AFP surveillance for the detection of poliovirus infection. Sensitive surveillance for poliovirus infection in both developed and developing countries is essential to support global disease eradication efforts. We applied recently developed methods for the quantitative evaluation of disease surveillance systems to evaluate the sensitivity of AFP surveillance for poliovirus infection in Australia.