Surveillance System Standards

agent, or infectiousness, may be important components.            

  Associated hosts, environmental conditions, and agent factors 

may influence the surveillance to be conducted.  

 Susceptible 

species, 

population density, and location of the 

species are factors for conducting surveillance for many 

diseases. 

 

Economic impact 

  Economic impact compares the discounted long-term impact 

of not controlling the disease or conducting surveillance with 

the discounted long-term impact of controlling the disease. 

Includes the impact of disease eradication, assuming 

surveillance results in eradication, impact of government 

activities in the affected industry, and consumer and allied 

industry impacts resulting from the surveillance system.  

  Economic indices of disease importance includes the direct 

and indirect costs of the surveillance system.  

  

Methods for control 

Mitigations and methods to control disease at national and 

herd levels.  If conducting an economic impact assessment 

before initiating the surveillance system, the assessment 

should consider a number of scenarios about potential 

surveillance methods.   

  

1.2 Purpose and Rationale for Surveillance  

 

The purpose and rationale describe the need and reasoning for the surveillance system, and 

provide justification for the type of surveillance planned.  

Standard: 

The purpose and rationale for surveillance are clearly described in the surveillance 

plan or equivalent program planning documents.   

a.  Responsible parties and stakeholders have a clear understanding of the 

purpose and rationale of the surveillance system.  

b.  The purpose and rationale are reiterated in progress and summary reports 

and presentations. 

c.  The purpose and rationale are periodically reviewed to determine relevance.  

d.  Changes in the purpose and rationale are documented and shared with 

stakeholders and all responsible parties.   

 

 

Supporting Information:  

 

The purpose describes the need and reasoning for the surveillance system and is justified 

by the rationale for conducting the surveillance.   

 

Some of the purposes of surveillance are to: 

  Estimate the magnitude and baseline status of a problem; 

  Determine the geographic and demographic extent of an outbreak, predict possible 

spread, and provide data for disease regionalization;  

  Describe the natural history of a pathogen or disease; 

  Detect unusual clusters of disease (spatially or temporally), providing for early 

detection; 

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  Generate hypotheses and stimulate research; 

  Define or assess the health status of a population, providing the foundation for market 

confidence; 

  Detect changes in health practices, risk factors, or exposure; 

  Facilitate planning of national control and eradication programs and strategies; 

  Evaluate control measures and intervention efforts; 

  Identify factors associated with a disease agent that may be used in conducting 

surveillance elsewhere and in modeling pathogen spread; and 

  Determine times of year when most cases are observed. 

 

The rationale for a surveillance system may include a description of the severity of the 

disease and its impact on trade, animal welfare, public health and other key areas.  It may 

also include additional background information about the disease and its impact, and may 

summarize past surveillance efforts. 

 

The purpose and rationale for the surveillance system may describe requirements for 

successful surveillance as well as measurement of success.  Surveillance plans, supporting 

documents, and reports should use similar terminology to explicitly declare the purpose and 

rationale of the surveillance system.  

 

The purpose and rationale of a surveillance system may change or evolve over time, and 

these changes must be documented and shared with stakeholders and responsible parties.  

 

1.3 Surveillance Objectives: Principal Uses of Data for Decision-Making 

 

Surveillance objectives identify the goals of the surveillance plan that will achieve the purposes 

described in 1.2 and outline how the resulting data and information will be used for policy actions 

or decision-making.   

Standard:  

 

The surveillance objectives are specifically described in a surveillance plan or 

equivalent documents and explain the principal uses of the data for decision-

making.  They identify goals that when accomplished, will achieve the purposes of 

the surveillance system.   Surveillance systems with multiple objectives identify and 

justify the relative priority of those objectives.    

 

a.  Responsible parties and stakeholders have a clear understanding of 

surveillance objectives and their relative priority.  

b.  Surveillance objectives are addressed in reports and presentations that 

describe progress in the surveillance system. 

c.  The relative priority of the objectives is demonstrated in the implementation of 

the system. Refer to standard 1.12. 

d.  Surveillance objectives and priorities are periodically reviewed to determine 

the extent of achievement. 

e.  Changes in surveillance objectives are documented and shared with 

responsible parties and stakeholders.   

 

 

 

 

 

Supporting Information: 

When surveillance objectives are achieved, the resulting data are or will be used for action.  

The following table presents the standard list of 10 surveillance objectives used as a 

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