Companion May 2012 - BSAVA

Notifiable and
zoonotic disease
for companion animal
practitioners
Dr Sally Everitt, BSAVA’s
Scientific Policy Officer,
offers offers guidance on notifiable diseases and the
obligations we face as a profession
A
notifiable disease is any disease
that is required, by law, to be
reported to government
authorities. Animal diseases may
be notifiable because they are of
significant economic importance or
because they pose a risk to human health.
The primary purpose of the notification
system is to identify possible outbreaks
and epidemics to allow rapid initiation of
appropriate action.
In the UK notification of diseases in
animals is regulated by the Animal Health
Act 1981, as well as the Specified
Diseases (Notification and Slaughter)
Order 1992 (as amended) and Specified
Diseases (Notification) Order 1996 (as
amended) which enacts European Union
Legislation. Certain pathogens also have to
be reported under the Specific Animal
Pathogens Order (SAPO) 2008.
The 1981 Act states that ‘any person
having in their possession or under their
charge an animal affected or suspected of
having one of these diseases must, with all
practicable speed, notify that fact to a
police constable’. However, in practice a
veterinary surgeon who suspects a
notifiable disease should contact the
appropriate Animal Health and Veterinary
Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) office
(www.animalhealth.defra.gov.uk) who
will investigate the disease.
Endemic, exotic and zoonotic
The current list of notifiable diseases
(which can be found at www.defra.gov.
8 | companion
uk/animal-diseases/notifiable) includes
diseases which are ‘endemic’ (such as
Bovine TB), ‘exotic’ (those that are not
normally present in the UK, but can be
introduced, for example via illegal
imports or by wild birds), and/or ‘zoonotic’
(such as rabies).
To date, the notifiable disease system
has largely concentrated on diseases of
economic importance and public health as
applied to food-producing animals, and
Defra only specifically mentions one
notifiable disease of dogs and cats
(rabies). It should be remembered,
however, that dogs and cats may also be
affected by a number of notifiable diseases
which normally affect farm animals, horses
and birds. Exotic pets and wildlife can also
become infected or be implicated in the
transmission of notifiable diseases.
Beyond the UK
The European Animal Disease Notification
System (ADNS) collects information about
outbreaks of certain important infectious
animal diseases. This system is supported
by Council directive 82/894/EEC (last
amended by 2008/650/EC) which makes it
compulsory for Member States to notify
primary and secondary outbreaks of listed
infectious animal diseases. The primary
purpose of this system is to provide
information and to ensure that trade in live
animals and animal products is not
affected unnecessarily (http://ec.europa.
eu/food/animal/diseases/adns/index_
en.htm).
At world level, the World Organisation
for Animal Health (OIE) places a formal
obligation on each member to report the
animal diseases (including zoonoses) that
it detects on its territory in order to: ensure
transparency about the global animal
disease situation; enable the collection,
analysis and dissemination of veterinary
scientific information; encourage
international solidarity for the control of
animal diseases; and safeguard animal
health and welfare. The OIE list of diseases
of importance is available online, along
with more detailed information about the
diseases (www.oie.int). The OIE list
includes diseases of fish, bees and
amphibians as well farm animals and birds.
Defining the concept
The concept of notifiable disease is also
used in human medicine under the Public
Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 and
the Health Protection (Notification)
Regulations 2010. The current list of
notifiable diseases includes a number of
zoonoses. A comparison of the notification
status of zoonotic diseases in humans and
animals is provided in Table 1 (from HPA
Guidelines for the investigation of zoonotic
disease).
Companion animals and
zoonotic disease
Although the concept of One Health has
been gaining ground in recent years, the
importance of companion animals in the
transmission of zoonotic disease has been
somewhat neglected*. However, there are
a number of reasons why it is appropriate
to examine the role of companion animals
in diseases of public health importance.