The 2nd Meeting of the Canadian Animal Health Laboratorians Network

The Steering Committee for the 2003 Canadian Animal Health Laboratorians Network (CAHLN) meeting (held May 4–7, 2003 in Ottawa) included Drs. Youssef Elazhary (QC), Jim Goltz (NB), Barbara Horney (PEI), Grant Maxie (ON), Shane Renwick (CFIA), Mark Swendrowski (MB), and Bill Yates (CFIA).

The CAHLN was established in 2002 with the purpose of facilitating linkages among organizations and scientific staff involved in animal health laboratory work in Canada. The Network consists of individuals conducting or managing laboratory work in animal health, including, but not limited to, specialists in bacteriology, pathology, immunology, virology, parasitology, toxicology, and molecular biology.

The purpose of the annual meeting is to exchange information on diagnostic trends, techniques, and research through “networking,” to identify common issues of concern in animal health diagnostics, and to solve problems.

The 2003 meeting built upon the success of the inaugural meeting held in June 2002. The following abstracts are from keynote presentations given at the May 2003 meeting.

Global trends in animal disease and the response of international organizations

Sarah Kahn1

An examination of developments in world trade and global disease activity suggests that Canada's animal health laboratories will continue to receive increasing demands for diagnostic testing and animal disease surveillance.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) National Animal Health Program relies on diagnostic and investigative services that are provided by Canada's animal health laboratory network in relation to the 30-plus diseases that are reported to the CFIA under the Health of Animals Act and Regulations. These reportable diseases are linked to 1 or more aspects of the Animal Health Program, such as foreign animal disease prevention and preparedness, domestic disease control or eradication, international reporting obligations, and the associated trade requirements. The laboratory network is also called upon to support disease certification and embryo and semen production programs by testing for nonreportable diseases. In addition, Canadian laboratory scientists provide expert guidance and advice in the development of policy and on disease risks to animal health and public safety.

As a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) (the international animal health organization), Canada provides notification of significant disease events; participates in the development of standards for diagnosis, surveillance, and control of important diseases; and takes full account of WTO obligations and OIE's technical standards for purposes of international trade. Canada's active participation in the work of OIE through the work of individual experts and reference laboratories ensures that these standards are relevant to Canada's animal health situation and standards.

Given the increase of global trade in recent decades, the emergence of new zoonotic diseases (such as BSE), and the increasing significance of some of the older diseases, such as tuberculosis, there is an increased level of public concern about the ability of veterinary services to prevent disease events and protect public health. Since 2000, the global intensification of foot and mouth disease activity, the emergence of new zoonoses (Nipah in Malaysia), and first time disease outbreaks in some countries (bluetongue in some countries of Europe) have greatly increased the demands on animal health laboratories throughout the world.

Increasingly, laboratories are expected to produce more rapid and accurate diagnoses, and to enhance collaboration with public health laboratories. Molecular techniques are used increasingly in routine diagnostic work. Recent examples, including avian influenza and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), highlight the value of close collaboration between animal health and public health laboratories.

Using animals as sentinels for zoonotic pathogens (testing wild birds for West Nile virus) also increases the demands on veterinary diagnostic laboratories. The potential use of pathogens or toxins as weapons of mass destruction compels veterinary authorities to prepare and plan for outbreaks that are much broader in scope than those formerly envisaged.

International policy changes, including a move to vaccination to avoid large scale destruction and disposal of animals in outbreaks of serious diseases, will demand increased sophistication in serological surveillance to enable veterinary services to differentiate between animals that have been vaccinated but are disease free and those that have been vaccinated and are carriers of infection.

To keep pace with these demands and to ensure that Canada is in the best possible position to combat animal disease, diagnostic laboratories must have adequate financial and personnel resources, training, and modern technology and information management systems, and good management and scientific leadership. This is a priority that the CFIA and its partners must recognize and pursue.

The role of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians in the new United States National Animal Health Laboratory Network

Terry F. McElwain2

Animal disease diagnosis and surveillance in the United States (US) would function most effectively as a shared responsibility of publicly funded state animal health laboratories, represented by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD), and federal animal health laboratories administered through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). As identified in the US National Association of State Department of Agriculture's Animal Health Safeguarding Review, the National Research Council's Report “Countering Agricultural Bioterrorism,” the US General Accounting Office report on foot and mouth disease, and multiple other studies, the need to develop and maintain a state-of-the-art national animal health laboratory network (NAHLN) has never been more critical.

Animal industries, regulatory agencies, and public health would all benefit from a NAHLN. Full implementation will provide early detection of bioterrorist events; natural or intentional contamination of the population's food supply; animal disease outbreaks involving agents that impact human health, such as anthrax and West Nile virus; and early recognition of newly emergent and economically important diseases such as foot and mouth disease and exotic Newcastle disease. Importantly, the NAHLN also would strengthen current state-based laboratory testing for export of animals and live animal products, ensure that testing meets international quality standards, and enhance surveillance for diseases of international concern to expand global markets.

The US responded quickly and appropriately to new public health threats by creating and funding a comprehensive public health laboratory response network (LRN), coordinated through the Centers for Disease Control. A similar comprehensive, coordinated, and modernized federal and state animal health laboratory network is urgently needed to address the same emergent biological and chemical threats to animal agriculture and the security of the human food supply.

In June 2002, President Bush signed HR3448 into law as the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. This law, in section 335, authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to develop an agricultural early warning surveillance system that enhanced the capacity and coordination among state veterinary diagnostic laboratories, federal and state facilities, and public health agencies, and provided authorization for Congress to appropriate funding to the NAHLN. In 2002, a pilot NAHLN, involving 12 state/university diagnostic laboratories, was funded through the USDA for a 2-year period to develop capacity and surveillance programs for 8 high priority foreign animal diseases considered to be bioterrorist threats. The $15.25M for the pilot NALHN provided critical project startup costs. Funding was distributed to individual state laboratories through USDA cooperative agreements and to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa for network coordination.

Objectives of the NAHLN include a secure communication, reporting, and alert system; standardized, rapid diagnostic techniques; modern equipment and trained personnel; a training, proficiency testing, and quality assurance system to ensure that all laboratories meet quality standards; federal and state facility upgrades to meet biocontainment requirements; and periodic scenario testing. The organizational structure includes a Steering Committee comprised of stakeholders representing the USDA, AAVLD, and the US Animal Health Association. Rapid real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays for each of the 8 targeted exotic agents are being developed and bench validated by the USDA Agriculture Research Service; they will be field validated by the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the NAHLN laboratories. Transfer of assays for exotic Newcastle disease and avian influenza is nearly complete, while classical swine fever and foot and mouth disease assays are well into development.

Future goals include integration of the NAHLN with other public health (LRN) and food emergency response networks, and expansion to include diagnostic capabilities for additional agents and toxins and additional laboratories throughout the United States.

Population health: The human-animal interface

Robert Clarke3

Population health is a concept that focuses on the status of the health and well-being of individuals and populations as being the result of complex interactions between a suite of health determinants. The interaction between humans and animals represents an important interface in population health that is often overlooked and underestimated in terms of impact. It is increasingly important for the veterinary profession and those involved in animal health to find ways to explore this interface and ensure that they have effective communication with human medical colleagues and the public.

Three human health issues that have recently been the focus of much public concern are the fear that in the future the health care system will be unable to meet the needs of Canadians, new emerging diseases (severe acute respiratory syndrome [SARS]), and terrorism and emergency preparedness. In all of these issues, veterinarians have an important role to play.

Although there are a number of factors creating increased demand on the health care system, the most important are preventable pressures. Risks associated with smoking, poor nutrition, obesity, unsafe sex, alcohol and substance abuse, unsafe water, poor sanitation, air pollution, and sedentary lifestyles lead to chronic diseases and massive costs to the health care system. Even though diet and exercise alone can reduce the risk of diabetes by 60%, there is an explosion of diabetes in North America with cases increasing by an estimated 64% from 2000 to 2005. Veterinarians can play an important role in the reduction of these preventable pressures by enhancing food and water safety, providing scientific support (especially in areas such as risk analysis, epidemiology, nutrition, and pathology), working internationally to ensure equitable access to food, and, most importantly, providing leadership in the community as part of the health profession team.

Zoonotic diseases, especially new emerging diseases, represent an area of expertise where the veterinary profession is uniquely capable of providing leadership. The vast majority of recent important public health infectious disease issues (human immunodeficiency virus infection [HIV], SARS, West Nile virus disease, variant Creutzfedt-Jakob disease, monkeypox) have animal reservoirs. Economic losses due to SARS and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) alone have cost Canadians billions of dollars in recent months. Unfortunately, most of the efforts to deal with these issues are focused on mitigation after the expression of the problem in the human population, or when trade is disrupted. Resources need to be redirected to research and intervention strategies that operate at the wildlife and domestic animal level in order to understand emergence factors and develop an enhanced capacity to predict and prevent the spread of these new emerging diseases.

Concerns, real and perceived, about terrorism have had a major effect on the public and governments around the world. Extra trade and security measures have created unseen costs at borders, which have added to the costs of trade in agriculture and food products. In addition, since many of the potential bioterrorist agents are zoonotic (Bacillus anthracis) or agents chosen to disrupt the agricultural economy (foot and mouth disease virus), there is a major role for veterinarians to provide expertise and logistical support for preparedness.

Unfortunately, many of the population and public health activities of veterinarians remain invisible to the human medical community and the public. The difficulties encountered by Canada and other countries during the SARS outbreak has prompted a rethinking of how public health is coordinated and managed. This represents a unique opportunity for the veterinary profession to communicate a future vision for veterinary public health and become an important, visible partner in Canada's new public health system.