ZooNotify - New online portal provides data on the occurrence of zoonotic agents and their antimicrobial resistances along the food chain in Germany

Alemán. Zoonoses data from the food chain in Germany are primarily available in reports. This results in limited accessibility and re-usability of this data in science and risk assessment. With ZooNotify, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment and the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture aim at making existing zoonoses data findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable (FAIR). The ZooNotify data base comprises data from 2012 to 2021 collected under the framework of the zoonoses monitoring and the Salmonella control programmes in poultry, according to Directive 2003/99/EC and Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003, respectively. Currently, aggregated antimicrobial resistance data for Germany are available, which will be complemented with non-aggregated data on resistance and occurrence soon. Users can filter the ZooNotify data base according to individual interests. ZooNotify further offers different pre-defined graphs for easy and quick data visualization. For example, “temporal trend graphs” visualizing the development of resistance rates of microbiological isolates to antimicrobial substances over time. Additionally, the filtered data and associated metadata can be downloaded in csv-format. ZooNotify also provides explanations for the available graphs and the methods for resistance testing as well as isolate collection and characterization. Moreover, ZooNotify supplies an application programming interface in JSON-format for improved interoperability. Overall, ZooNotify offers a digital solution to integrate data about zoonotic agents and their antimicrobial resistance along the food chain. The continuous development of functionalities and data expansion of ZooNotify supports the EU “open data” strategy and forms an important basis for improved risk assessment and animal and consumer health protection.