Duncan Andrew J, Eze Jude I, Brülisauer Franz, Stirling Julie M, Jennings Amy, Tongue Sue C
Centre for Epidemiology and Planetary Health, Department of Veterinary and Animal Science, Northern Faculty, Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), Inverness, United Kingdom.
UHI Inverness, University of the Highlands and Islands, Inverness, United Kingdom.
Front Vet Sci. 2023 Feb 21;10:1099057. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1099057. eCollection 2023.
Regular evaluation is a prerequisite for systems that provide surveillance of animal populations. Scotland's Rural College Veterinary Services' Disease Surveillance Centre (DSC) network plays an integral part in surveillance to detect new and re-emerging threats within animal populations, predominantly livestock. In response to surveillance reviews and proposed changes to the network, an initial evaluation of diagnostic submissions data in 2010 to mid-2012 established a baseline “footprint,” while highlighting challenges with the data. In this recent evaluation for the period 2013–2018, we developed a new denominator using a combination of agricultural census and movement data, to identify relevant holdings more accurately. Iterative discussions between those processing submissions data and those involved in collection at source took place to understand the intricacies of the data, establish the most appropriate dataset, and develop the processes required to optimise the data extraction and cleansing. The subsequent descriptive analysis identifies the number of diagnostic submissions, the number of unique holdings making submissions to the network and shows that both the surrounding geographic region of, and maximum distance to the closest DSC vary greatly between centres. Analysis of those submissions classed as farm animal post-mortems also highlights the effect of distance to the closest DSC. Whether specific differences between the time periods are due to changes in the behavior of the submitting holdings or the data extraction and cleaning processes was difficult to disentangle. However, with the improved techniques producing better data to work with, a new baseline footprint for the network has been created. This provides information that can help policy makers and surveillance providers make decisions about service provision and evaluate the impact of future changes. Additionally, the outputs of these analyses can provide feedback to those employed in the service, providing evidence of what they are achieving and why changes to data collection processes and ways of working are being made. In a different setting, other data will be available and different challenges may arise. However, the fundamental principles highlighted in these evaluations and the solutions developed should be of interest to any surveillance providers generating similar diagnostic data.
定期评估是对动物种群进行监测的系统的一项先决条件。苏格兰农村学院兽医服务部疾病监测中心（DSC）网络在监测动物种群（主要是家畜）中的新出现和再次出现的威胁方面发挥着不可或缺的作用。针对监测评估和网络的拟议变更，2010年至2012年年中对诊断提交数据进行的初步评估建立了一个基线“足迹”，同时凸显了数据方面的挑战。在此次针对2013 - 2018年期间的最新评估中，我们结合农业普查和移动数据开发了一个新的分母，以更准确地识别相关养殖场。处理提交数据的人员与源头数据收集人员之间进行了反复讨论，以了解数据的复杂性，确定最合适的数据集，并开发优化数据提取和清理所需的流程。随后的描述性分析确定了诊断提交的数量、向该网络提交数据的独特养殖场的数量，并表明各中心之间，其周边地理区域以及到最近DSC的最大距离差异很大。对那些归类为农场动物尸检的提交数据的分析也凸显了到最近DSC的距离的影响。不同时间段之间的具体差异是由于提交数据的养殖场的行为变化还是数据提取和清理流程所致，很难区分。然而，随着技术改进产生了更好的数据可供使用，已为该网络创建了一个新的基线足迹。这提供的信息有助于政策制定者和监测提供者就服务提供做出决策，并评估未来变更的影响。此外，这些分析的结果可以向该服务部门的工作人员提供反馈，证明他们取得了什么成果以及为何要对数据收集流程和工作方式进行变更。在不同的背景下，会有其他可用数据，也可能出现不同的挑战。然而，这些评估中强调的基本原则以及所开发的解决方案应该会引起任何生成类似诊断数据的监测提供者的兴趣。
