| Veterinary Practice Surveillance (VPS) is an innovative approach to surveillance that provides the framework for veterinarians to share information via the Internet. It is one of three components of the Alberta Veterinary Surveillance Network (AVSN).
Via a secure website, participating veterinary practitioners across the province report information about their veterinary visits to cattle farms. Data about both disease and non-disease related visits (e.g. pregnancy diagnosis, herd-health visits etc) are collected. Information from all visits provides valuable demographic information about Alberta’s cattle population. Production-related data is not collected.
To protect privacy and preserve confidentiality between veterinarians and their clients, the producer’s identity and exact farm location are not available to Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD). Only the county location of the farms is provided to ARD.
Food Safety Division epidemiologists analyze the data. Important or unusual events detected by data analysis are investigated further to determine their cause, extent and significance. Often, these investigations occur through the Livestock Pathology Consultation Program and/or the Livestock Disease Investigation Network.
Information obtained through the data analysis is shared regularly with participating practices and Senior Leadership Team of Food Safety Division.
Because private veterinary practitioners are in close contact with much of Alberta’s cattle population on a regular basis, this approach to surveillance provides a broad coverage. Participating veterinarians are encouraged to report farm visit information as soon as possible thereby providing as near real-time surveillance as possible. This near real-time surveillance facilitates early detection of unusual disease events.
Enrollment in VPS was initiated in August 2005. As of October 2008, 23 to 27 veterinary practices have entered data on a regular basis. Locations of participating veterinary practices match the cattle rearing regions of our province. The extent of the surveillance and data collected is outlined in the table below.
Year | 2008* | 2007 | 2006 |
| # of disease submissions | 11,716 | 16,694 | 14,741 |
| # of farms under surveillance | 3,919 | 4,977 | 4,535 |
| # of counties under surveillance | 73 | 75 | 75 |
| # of cattle under surveillance | 1.43 million | 1.66 million | 1.60 million |
* Data for year 2008 is until the end of October 2008.
For more information regarding this project please contact Dr. Jagdish Patel or Dr. John Berezowski.
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Alberta Veterinary Surveillance Network (AVSN) |