26 Jul 2021
Staff at the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network are asking for vets to help them standardise when and how investigations into potential outbreaks should begin.
Joshua Silverwood
Job Title
Researchers are calling on vets to get involved with a focus group aimed at controlling infectious diseases in dogs by codifying response protocols for outbreaks.
Staff at the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network (SAVSNET), based out of the University of Liverpool, need vets to help them standardise when and how investigations into potential outbreaks should begin.
SAVSNET, funded by Dogs Trust, is a group dedicated to using data to track and understand diseases in dogs, and how they spread. Their current project is seeking to standardise the industry response to potential future viral outbreaks.
Carmen Tamayo, a member of the SAVSNET-Agile team at the University of Bristol, said: “There’s two different workshops we were planning on having. One would be discussing with vets when they would want to be notified that there could be a potential outbreak of an infectious disease in dogs.
“Basically, how severe does an outbreak have to be before they are informed? In a way so that they don’t get overwhelmed with too much information, so we want to make sure we only notify them when it’s necessary.”
Ms Tamayo added: “The other workshop is, for once an outbreak has been declared, how to best communicate with vets in real time and with the owners of animals. We need to know what the vets need to know and what would be the best platform to communicate through.
“We want to make sure that this whole detection system is applicable in real life and useful in a practical situation.”
Previously, SAVSNET had identified a vomiting disease in dogs, linked with a form of canine coronavirus, after a 12-month investigation.
In just a month, researchers at SAVSNET received 1,258 case questionnaires from vets and owners while 95 clinical samples from 71 animals were also collected.
Ms Tamayo added: “The ideal system would be one in which everything is automated, and we can contact people who need to know and the area affected as soon as an outbreak is detected; to have some tailored guidance about what to do, preventive measures and how to communicate with owners – especially if it’s a disease that’s not very well known by vets in the UK.
“We also want to have a panel of expert vets who are familiar with different kinds of diseases who would volunteer to provide their expertise and advice.”
SAVSNET is asking vets interested in taking part in its workshops to get in touch via its website.
