OASIS: an assessment tool of epidemiological surveillance systems in animal health and food safety

(Accepted 22 January 2011; first published online 9 March 2011)SUMMARYThe purpose of this study was to develop a standardized tool for the assessment of surveillancesystems on zoonoses and animal diseases. We reviewed three existing methods and combinedthem to develop a semi-quantitative assessment tool associating their strengths and providing astandardized way to display multilevel results. We developed a set of 78 assessment criteriadivided into ten sections, representing the functional parts of a surveillance system. Each criterionwas given a score according to the prescription of a scoring guide. Three graphical assessmentoutputs were generated using a specific combination of the scores. Output 1 is a general overviewthrough a series of pie charts synthesizing the scores of each section. Output 2 is a histogramrepresenting the quality of eight critical control points. Output 3 is a radar chart representing thelevel reached by ten system attributes. This tool was applied on five surveillance networks.Key words: Animal health, assessment, epidemiological surveillance, evaluation, food safety,OASIS, surveillance system.INTRODUCTIONEpidemiological surveillance is a key activity forpublicveterinaryservicesandotherpublicandprivateorganizations in animal health and food safety thatrequire high-quality information in order to takeappropriate decisions and implement activities forprevention and control of zoonoses and animal dis-eases [1].The quality of health information relies on thequality of the surveillance systems from which itwas obtained. It therefore is crucial to assess surveil-lance systems in order to estimate the usefulnessand the correct application of the generated data [2].The assessment of surveillance systems is conse-quently a component of both the risk analysis proce-dures agreed upon at international level [3] and the