Description of surveillance components related to classical swine fever, blue tongue and rabies in selected European countries: An experts’ knowledge elicitation

In the European Union, there are surveillance systems to detect early appearance of classical swine fever (CSF), bluetongue (BT) and rabies, all notifiable diseases. In this study, we conducted a survey in three European countries, member of SPARE (SPatial Assessments of Risk for Europe) consortium to assess the surveillance systems for CSF, BT and rabies. The elicitation process recruited experts among national institutes in the targeted countries and the questionnaire gathered descriptive information on the surveillance system and evaluation feedbacks against 12 attributes for each surveillance component: timeliness, sensitivity, representativeness, acceptability, flexibility, coverage, costs, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, benefit, communication and dissemination. To express the overall perception of national experts, we calculated the median of the evaluation scores for each evaluation attribute across all components. The implementation of a passive surveillance for domestic and wild pigs for CSF was shared by all countries, although the source of data collection differed for slaughterhouses and farms versus wild environments. For BT, countries adopt different approaches because no surveillance component is common among the targeted countries. For rabies, passive surveillance of wildlife is a common component. The study highlighted differences between the countries in the organisation and design of the surveillance systems even when objective are similar (e.g. early detection) and implemented under the same EU legislative framework. The choice of surveillance components was a multifactorial process influenced by the epidemiological situation of the hazard in the country, national contexts, political dynamics, interests and country sanitary priorities. The different levels of performance of surveillance components reported by the recruited experts are interpreted as a major concern for livestock population, the economy and the public health in EU.