Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Written Evidence


Supplementary memorandum submitted by the National Animal Disease Information Service (NADIS) (W8(a))

  NADIS is a network of sentinel practices, set up to monitor diseases in cattle, sheep and pigs in the UK. It was formed in 1995 and now consists of 40 sentinel practices and the farm animal teaching units of all six UK Veterinary Colleges. The reporting vets record all the diseases they encounter on a daily basis (see some examples in attachment (not printed)). The information is loaded onto a central disease database every 2 weeks. Each disease is coded, with further subdivisions for species (cattle, sheep and pigs), type eg for cattle (dairy or beef) and age (adult, youngstock or calf). Data can be presented on either a national or regional basis for any period up to July 1995.

  Veterinary surgeons recording for NADIS are either certificate or diploma holders or recognised authorities in their fields. Diagnosis is based on field diagnosis, or laboratory analysis if undertaken.

  Monthly reports are published to the profession in UK Vet Livestock, and its associated website, and to the farming industry on the main farmer websites www.fwi.co.uk, www.farmline.com), in the national farming press (Beef Farmer, Sheep Farmer, Dairy Farmer, Farmers Guardian and Pig World) and the regional farming press (Scottish Farmer, Welsh Farmer, S W Farmer and Farm Week Northern Ireland). Bulletins are sent to a growing number of local newspapers with a strong farm readership.

  Professor Roger Morris, chief advisor to DEFRA for FMD and BSE, has described NADIS as the best sentinel practice network in the world. NADIS carries out scanning surveillance, continuously scanning the whole range of livestock diseases in the UK. This information is immediately fed back to the veterinary and farming industries, to increase awareness of the prevalent diseases and to highlight the measures that should be put in place to control them. NADIS has operated on a limited budget, which has prevented it from further development. The Meah Report "Veterinary Surveillance in England and Wales", for MAFF and commissioned by the then minister for agriculture Nick Brown recommended government funding to develop the system.

1.  Record all data on a denominator basis

2.  Improve case definition. NADIS will be trialling VETPAD this summer. VETPAD is a palm held computerised system used for recording disease surveillance data in New Zealand

3.  Appropriate quality assurance controls

4.  Increase the number of sentinel practices to increase the sensitivity of the data. NADIS has already contacted a further key 60 livestock practices, reflecting livestock density across the country, bringing the total to over 100 practices. The practices have agreed to join NADIS provided government funding is available.

Professor Roger Morris believes that provided the distribution of the practices reflects livestock density this would be the correct number of practices for livestock disease surveillance purposes in the UK. NADIS believes that by working with the VLS/SAC the range and quality of the samples they base their laboratory analysis on will be improved thereby improving the validity of the very valuable work they carry out.

To detect a new emerging disease such as was the case for BSE in the late 70's all livestock diseases must be continually monitored on a denominator basis, so that early deviation from the normal disease pattern can be quickly detected, and targeted surveillance instituted by the VLA/SAC. If NADIS had been established in the late 70's its veterinary surgeons would have been recording an increase in "unidentified neurological condition in adult dairy cattle". Targeted surveillance would have been activated with the VLA/SAC. NADIS believes that working closely with the VLA/SAC will provide the cornerstone for effective scanning surveillance and proved a very cost effective option for government in this vital area.

  NADIS has an eight-year track record and enjoys the support of practitioners across the UK. If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me.

Mike Howe BVetMed MRCVS
National Animal Disease Information Service
June 2003



 
previous page contents next page

House of Commons home page Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries index

© Parliamentary copyright 2003
Prepared 23 October 2003