Page 462 - The Veterinary Laboratory and Field Manual 3rd Edition

Epidemiology 399

deployed in close proximity to more remote live- ing system in order to allow data to be analysed
stock owning communities and where veterinary using statistical software packages which con-
paraprofessionals have been given appropriate vert the data into information which can be used
basic training and have acquired good clinical to inform policymakers or for disease prevention
skills such individuals can be trained to conduct and control strategy formulation exercises.
a post-mortem examination and undertake a Examples of standard reporting forms are
preliminary outbreak investigation in addition provided in the appendices at the end of this
to providing a report of the clinical suspicion of book. These forms have been carefully designed
a notifiable disease event. This training should to provide the necessary information which is
include a module on laboratory sample collection required by the OIE disease notification system
and sample handling. At the end of the training known as the World Animal Health Information
the trainees can be supplied with a post-mortem System (WAHIS). Provided that the service pro-
and sampling kit with a plastic laminated copy viders are literate they can easily learn to fill in
of Table 9.1 given at the end of this chapter, these forms with some professional coaching
that gives a list of notifiable disease syndromes, during the first few attempts.
their putative causes and the most appropri- Increasingly, efforts are now underway to
ate samples to be collected and submitted for a develop and test smartphone or tablet appli-
laboratory confirmation to be made. cations for disease reporting. Such web-based
As outlined in previous chapters in this book, disease reporting systems, incorporating GPS
what is important is that any of the veterinary data and the possibility to send images of animals
support team, whether for his or her own inter- and pathological lesions to assist the epidemi-
est or that of his client, or whether working on ology unit receiving such a report to make a
behalf of the state as a member of a disease sur- provisional diagnosis, will gradually replace the
veillance system, should know which samples paper-based reporting systems currently in use
would be most appropriate to submit for a labo- in many countries and will further improve con-
ratory diagnosis to be made. sistency and accuracy of disease reporting as well
Both active and passive disease surveillance as achieving real time early warning of notifiable
systems require a robust reporting and record- disease events.

Case Study: Afghanistan

Private veterinary paraprofessionals working in partnership with the state
veterinary services

In Afghanistan, where there is a well-established network of privately operating veterinarians
and veterinary paraprofessionals, working under various levels of professional supervision,
covering almost all areas of the country where livestock are being raised, a new system
for disease surveillance is being developed. This system involves the award of a ‘Sanitary
Mandate’ contract to veterinary service providers to report, and when requested, to inves-
tigate, suspected cases or outbreaks of notifiable diseases. Under this system, the private
service provider gives a verbal notification of a suspected notifiable disease occurrence to
his nearest provincial veterinary officer using a mobile telephone. This verbal report is then

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