Search

The existence, stage of eradication and design of control programmes (CPs) for diseases that are not regulated by the EU differ between Member States. When freedom from infection is reached (or being pursued), safe trade is essential to protect (or reach) that status. The aim of STOC free, a collaborative project between six countries, is to develop and validate a framework that enables a transparent and standardized comparison of confidence of freedom for CPs across herds, regions or countries. The framework consists of a model combined with a tool to facilitate the collection of the necessary parameters. All relevant actions taken in a CP are included in a Bayesian network model, which allows prior distributions for most parameters. In addition, frequency of occurrence and risk estimates for factors that influence either the probability of introduction or temporary misclassification leading to delayed detection of the infection are included in the model. Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is used as an example disease. Many countries have CPs in place for BVDV and although elements of the CPs are similar, biosecurity measures and testing protocols, including types of tests and testing frequency, as well as target groups, differ widely. Although the initially developed framework is based on BVDV, the aim is to make it sufficiently generic to be adaptable to CPs for other diseases and possibly other species. Thus, STOC free will result in a single general framework, adaptable to multiple disease CPs, which aims to enhance the safety of trade. European Food Safety Authority

International audience; Countries differ in existence, stage of eradication and design of control programs for non-regulated diseases. When freedom from infection is achieved, safe trade is essential to protect that status. The aim of STOC free, a collaboration between six countries, is to develop and validate a framework that enables transparent and standardized comparison of confidence of disease freedom for control programs across herds, regions or countries. The framework consists of a model (STOC free MODEL) combined with a tool to facilitate the collection of the necessary parameters (STOC free DATA). All actions taken in a control program will be included in a Bayesian model, which needs prior distributions for most parameters. Data for the distributions can be obtained from databases of control programs, demographic data and contact structures between herds. In addition, frequency of occurrence and risk estimates for factors that influence either the probability of introduction or delayed detection of the infection will be included in the model. Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is used as an example disease. Many countries have control programs in place for this complex and detrimental disease with wide differences between application of vaccinations, combinations of diagnostic tests applied, frequency of testing and target groups. Although BVDV will be a thorough test of the initial developed framework, it should be generic enough to be adaptable to control programs for other diseases. With the introduction of the new Animal Health Law (AHL), it is anticipated that assessments of the performance of control programmes will progressively change towards output-based measures. The STOC free framework will support the AHL by providing a single general framework, adaptable to multiple diseases, which aims to enhance the safety of trade.

International audience; Objective: Several European countries have implemented control or eradication programmes for non-regulated diseases such as bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV). However, the diversity in such control programmes (CP) creates difficulties for intra-community trade given that the probability of freedom from e.g. BVDV will differ between countries. This poses a risk of potential movement of BVDV into free regions. An understanding of equivalence with respect to disease freedom is important when seeking to facilitate interstate animal movements,whilst also managing the risk of infection. In this project, six European countries collaborate to develop an output-based approach to assess and compare confidence of freedom resulting from different CPs. The aim was to qualitatively compare the confidence of freedom resulting from different BVDV CPs. Materials and methods: An existing tool for harmonized description of surveillance programmes (the RISKSUR tool) was used to collect information from each participating country about BVDV status, demographic information and surveillance activities for BVDV, and expanded to also include control measures of the BVDV CPs. Results: The design of BVDV CPs differed considerably as well as country demographics (Table 1). The aspects of the different CPs were grouped in three main topics: context (i.e. BVDV status, occurrence of risk factors), actions to obtain a BVDV free status and measures to monitor the free status. Conclusions: The variation in context was larger than the variation in control programmes, resulting in different risk classifications for territories. The context of a country or territory is crucial information for an outcomebased comparison of BVDV CPs.

International audience

International audience