5.4 Surveillance

Disease monitoring is the continuous effort to collect data to assess the health and the disease status of a given population.

Disease surveillance is a more active data collection system whereby some form of directed action will be taken if the data hints at the prevalence of a disease or a disease incidence above a certain threshold.

For this reason, systematic data collection, analysis, and interpretation should include the following measures:

1. Tailored data collection and analysis system
2. Pre-defined thresholds with respect to the disease
3. Pre-defined interventions that are subjected to results from surveillance.

5.4.1 Why do we survey animal diseases?

Doing so provides a means of determining the health and the disease status of national and regional animal populations.

Also, doing so allows us to control animal diseases to improve the health and the productivity of the nation’s livestock.