AVA Conference Adelaide 2016

Assurance in Australia’s animal health status underpins the ‘clean, green’ image of Australia’s animal industries and our competitive advantage in international markets. It also supports domestic consumer confidence in Australian livestock products. This presentation will outline the importance of animal health surveillance in supporting trade, mitigating the risk of serious disease outbreaks and (in the case of zoonotic diseases) safeguarding the health of people. It will explain the imperatives for surveillance in the face of a growing risk of disease emergence and the tendency for trading partners to demand more robust evidence in support of claims for disease freedom. It will also explore the challenges in getting the right sort of surveillance information to the right people at the right time. We face technical, social, economic and political issues that influence the people, policies, programs and information technology that constitute our surveillance system. Many would agree that surveillance is a shared responsibility of governments, livestock industries veterinarians and the wider community; yet we have long struggled to establish a coordinated national approach to surveillance. Against this backdrop of needs and challenges, the presentation will highlight opportunities afforded by modern technologies, the results of social research, shifting paradigms and the implementation of a National Animal Health Surveillance and Diagnostics Business Plan. The presenter will try to provoke discussion on how we might enhance partnerships, find mutual benefits and embrace new technologies to strengthen surveillance and protect the livestock production systems on which so many Australian’s depend