D3525.PDF

Ad hoc Group on Aquatic Animal Health Surveillance/July 2006 1
Original: English
July 2006
REPORT OF THE MEETING OF THE OIE AD HOC GROUP ON
AQUATIC ANIMAL HEALTH SURVEILLANCE
Paris, France, 24–26 July 2006
_______
The meeting of the OIE ad hoc Group on Aquatic Animal Health Surveillance was held at the OIE Headquarters
in Paris from 24 to 26 July 2006.
Dr Gideon Bruckner, Head of the OIE Scientific and Technical Department, welcomed the members on behalf of
the OIE Director General, Dr Bernard Vallat.
The meeting was chaired by Prof. Barry Hill. The Agenda, the list of participants and the Terms of Reference for
the ad hoc Group are presented as Appendices I, II and III, respectively.
1. Terrestrial Animal Health Code Appendix 3.8.1 General guidelines for animal health
surveillance
The ad hoc Group reviewed Appendix 3.8.1 of the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code on General
guidelines for animal health surveillance and adapted them to aquatic animal health surveillance. The
Group noticed areas in the Terrestrial Appendix where improvements could be made, but could not fully
address them due to time constraints. The Group proposed to address these issues at a future meeting.
Furthermore, the Group identified a number of definitions in the Terrestrial Code that need to be revised,
such as targeted surveillance and outbreak. In addition, there is a need to include some new definitions such
as active and passive surveillance
The adapted guidelines are presented at Appendix IV and are proposed for inclusion in the Aquatic Animal
Health Code.
2. Manual of Diagnostic Tests for Aquatic Animals Chapter 1.1.4 Requirements for
surveillance for international recognition of freedom from infection
The Group reviewed and updated Chapter 1.1.4 of the Manual of Diagnostic Tests for Aquatic Animals on
Requirements for surveillance for international recognition of freedom from infection.
One major revision identified by the Group was to expand the chapter to include surveillance to describe
occurrence and distribution of selected endemic diseases. For this reason, the Group began the process of
incorporating issues relevant to surveillance of endemic diseases. This task proved to be more extensive
than originally envisioned and will require further work by the Group at future meetings.
To reflect the change in scope of the chapter, the Group changed the title of the chapter to Guidelines for
Aquatic Animal Health Surveillance.

2 Ad hoc Group on Aquatic Animal Health Surveillance/July 2006
The Group discussed the effect of sensitivity and specificity on sample size required for surveys to
substantiate disease freedom and decided to include a table reporting sample sizes and acceptable number
of false positives under varying parameter values.
In the original version of chapter 1.1.4, both the terms disease and infection were used. However because
disease is an expression of infection under specific conditions, the Group decided to focus its efforts on
developing guidelines for surveillance to substantiate freedom from infection.
The chapter is presented at Appendix V.
3. Aquatic Manual chapters I.1, I.2 and I.3 on General information (on diseases of fish,
molluscs and crustaceans)
The Group noticed that considerable efforts were required to harmonise the three introductory chapters on
general information for diseases of fish, molluscs and crustaceans. Although work on harmonising the
chapters has progressed, a number of discrepancies remain among the three documents. A structure is now
provided for the authors of the chapters to fill in the gaps in the information. Some information that was
common to the three chapters was incorporated into chapter 1.1.4.
The chapters are presented at Appendices VI, VII and VIII.
4. Revise the specific disease chapter template of the Aquatic Manual to ensure that
scientific information necessary to develop appropriate surveillance programmes for
diseases can be formulated
A number of topic headings were added to the disease chapter template (see Appendix IX). These will be
further developed at the next meeting.
The Group identified the need to include in the disease chapters considerable information on the
development of surveillance systems for the specific disease. The Group realised that generating such
information might require a multidisciplinary approach and suggested that the revisions to the chapters may
also include input from epidemiologists.
5. Develop guidelines for Aquatic Manual chapter authors to follow in specifying the
surveillance requirements for individual diseases
Due to time constraints, the Group made limited progress on this item and will develop these guidelines at a
future meeting.
6. Steps in the design of a surveillance system
The Group initiated a description of steps involved in the design of a surveillance system with the intention
of including it in the guidelines. This will be further developed at the next meeting and harmonized within
the structure of Chapter 1.1.4. The steps are presented at Appendix X.
_______________
…/Appendices

Ad hoc Group on Aquatic Animal Health Surveillance/July 2006 3
Appendix I
REPORT OF THE MEETING OF THE OIE AD HOC GROUP ON
AQUATIC ANIMAL HEALTH SURVEILLANCE
Paris, France, 24–26 July 2006
_____
Agenda
1. Terrestrial Animal Health Code Appendix 3.8.1 General guidelines for animal health surveillance
2. Manual of Diagnostic Tests for Aquatic Animals Chapter 1.1.4 Requirements for surveillance for
international recognition of freedom from infection
3. Aquatic Manual chapters I.1, I.2 and I.3 on General information (on diseases of fish, molluscs and
crustaceans)
4. Revise the specific disease chapter template of the Aquatic Manual to ensure that scientific information
necessary to develop appropriate surveillance programmes for diseases can be formulated
5. Develop guidelines for Aquatic Manual chapter authors to follow in specifying the surveillance
requirements for individual diseases
6. Steps in the design of a surveillance system
_______________

Ad hoc Group on Aquatic Animal Health Surveillance/July 2006 5
Appendix II
REPORT OF THE MEETING OF THE OIE AD HOC GROUP ON
AQUATIC ANIMAL HEALTH SURVEILLANCE
Paris, France, 24–26 July 2006
_____
List of Participants
MEMBERS
Prof. B.J. Hill (Chairman)
The Centre for Environment,
Fisheries & Aquaculture Science
(CEFAS), Barrack Road, The Nothe,
Weymouth, Dorset DT4 8UB,
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel.: [phone],
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
Dr Marios Georgiadis
Lecturer of Epidemiology,
Laboratory of Animal Production
Economics, Department of Animal
Production, Ichthyology, Ecology
and Protection of Environment,
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine,
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
BOX 410, 54124 Thessaloniki,
GREECE
Tel.: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
Dr Flavio Corsin
Network of Aquaculture Centres in
Asia-Pacific (NACA), NAFIQAVED
Building, 10 Nguyen Cong Hoan, Ba
Dinh, Hanoi,
VIETNAM
Tel.: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
E-mail: flavio.co[email protected]
Dr Larry Hammell
Professor, Department of Health
Management, and Director, AVC –
Centre for Aquatic Health Sciences,
Atlantic Veterinary College,
University of Prince Edward Island,
550 University Avenue,
Charlottetown, PE C1A 4P3
CANADA
Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: l[email protected]a
CENTRAL BUREAU
Dr Bernard Vallat
Director General
OIE 12 rue de Prony
75017 Paris, FRANCE
Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
Dr Gideon Bruckner
Head, Scientific and Technical Dept
E-mail: [email protected]
Ms Sara Linnane
Scientific Editor, Scientific and
Technical Dept
E-mail: [e-mail]
_______________