The United States still does far better at animal surveillance than most other countries because its medical and veterinary systems are each excellent and because outbreaks cannot be hushed up -- as, for example, the SARS outbreak was in China.
For veterinary systems, only 5 systems were identified by the literature review, whereas 16 active, 7 pilot and 2 expired systems have been identified by the brief questionnaires.
This article promotes reflection on the complex processes involved in construction of the dynamic, specialized medical-veterinary system in arid communities, and the importance of local veterinary solutions for herders living in limited and changing conditions.
In Norway and Sweden, the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical veterinary classification system (ATCvet) is used to classify veterinary medicinal products [ 13] and was the system employed in this study.
That could be particularly difficult in a country like China, where the veterinary care system is underfinanced and millions of birds are kept in small flocks by families.
To supplement the formal veterinary extension system, governments and aid groups have experimented with training community-selected representatives to provide livestock health services (Catley et al. 2004).
Resource limitations, including lack of transportation and diagnostic supplies, restricted the ability of extension officers to visit pastoralist households and diagnose sick animals, which can lead to a breakdown in trust of the veterinary service system (Mugambi et al. 2012).
A mandatory veterinary notification system was only introduced on 12 June 2008 (week 24).
At the time of sampling, the veterinary surveillance system did not report any clinical signs suggesting virus circulation among herds.
