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.