1. Introduction
Over the last couple few decades, increasing globalization and international trade have made a world in which there is extensive trade in animals and animal products. Both people and animals can travel long distances in a very short time. These socio-economic changes have led to an increase in the emergence and spread of new and known infectious diseases affecting animals and humans (Bianchini et al., 2020). Consequently, infectious animal diseases have entered new frontiers, emerging in countries for the first time, as seen with the recent outbreaks like African swine fever (Linden et al., 2019), Lumpy skin disease (Bréard, 2016) and West Nile fever (Sambria et al., 2013) in different European countries. Therefore, now more than ever, national and international disease surveillance systems play a crucial role not only in preventing but also in foreseeing these threats by providing vital information on current or future potential threats.
Moreover, with the advances in data storage methods and computational power, animal health information systems and risk analysis tools have increased in their importance, and have become essential tools for animal disease control and surveillance.
Given the importance of information management, many national and international authorities have produced several animal information systems which every day gain more importance in their use. Notable examples of world animal health information systems are: i) the WAHIS platform, from the World Organization for Animal Health (0IE, 2019), OIE; and ii) Empres-i by the Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations, FAO (FAO, 2014).
Efficient decision-making on risk management of animal disease threats requires knowledge of which disease poses the highest threat and should therefore receive more attention (Bianchini et al., 2020; Humblet et al., 2012). This ensures that policy makers and researchers allocate adequate resources for the prevention and surveillance of human and animal diseases. Risk assessment has consequently become an essential method for prevention. Thus, different risk analysis tools have been created, each with different functions or objectives. Examples of such: i) MINTRISK, Method for INTegrated RISK assessment of vector-borne diseases, by Wageningen University & Research (MINTRISK, 2015); ii) SVARRA (De Vos et al., 2019), Rapid Risk Assessment tool for introduction of exotic disease to the Swedish animal population, and iii) SPARE (2020), Development of a Spatial risk assessment framework for Assessing exotic disease incuRsion through Europe (United Kingdom, Defra).
As such animal information systems have rapidly increased in use, by professionals from i) operational field activity or ii) animal health and control of diseases. R.S. Morris (1991) stated in 1991: “As in most other technical and management fields, information management is fast becoming the key to effective action in animal health”. Thus, a modern veterinary or public service requires effective systems for gathering relevant information from the field. In turn, this information should be processed such that it provides maximum value, and presented in a form which easily informs national policy making and effective disease control. Different professionals (academia, livestock industry, policy maker) which use these systems vary in the detail and type of information they require. It is therefore important to establish first, i) what are their professional expectations (preferences, needs and constraints) in respect of these tools and ii) what are the related existing gaps . This online cross-sectional study aimed to obtain a general picture of what animal and public health professionals require of animal health systems or risk analysis tools and the constraints of these applications.