Detecting and managing new animal health threats: how vulnerable are we?

The vulnerability of animal agriculture worldwide to notifiable and emerging diseases is regularly demonstrated, with significant impacts on food security and economic stability. Official authorities must be wary of such incursions and possess processes to respond to and manage such events, including preventing the introduction of exotic and emerging animal pathogens, detecting and managing outbreaks of exotic disease, and having an appropriate response system to control and eradicate disease in case of introduction (Torres and others 2002). The value of this system was demonstrated by the identification by veterinary investigation centre staff of, for example, bovine spongiform encephalopathy and bovine neonatal pancytopenia (Wells and others 1987, Bell and others 2010). A recent foresighting report by EPIC (Scotland's Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks) on the future of animal health surveillance in Scotland identified the balance of public versus private funding for surveillance, and policies for data-sharing and integration, to be critical uncertainties for surveillance in the future (Boden and others 2017). The example of SBV, which affected multiple countries in Europe when it emerged in 2011, as well as the recent UK incursions of avian influenza from migratory birds, and the threat of bluetongue virus from ongoing outbreaks in...