Syndromic surveillance in animal shelters: Practicality, feasibility, and validity of its application to prevent and control infectious/zoonotic disease

This paper proposes the application of syndromic surveillance as a method of disease surveillance to improve detection, prevention and control of diseases in animal shelter populations. Syndromic surveillance has been used for bioterrorism detection, pandemic flu, emerging diseases, nosocomial infections and in veterinary referral hospitals, but has been underutilized in general in veterinary medicine. In animal shelter populations where funding is limited, staff difficult to keep trained and infectious and zoonotic disease levels high, syndromic surveillance could be a practical approach to disease surveillance. Syndromic surveillance's simplicity and ease of use make it a feasible approach to disease prevention and control in animal shelters. Research is needed to determine the validity of a syndromic surveillance system for companion animals in shelters. Animal shelter policy makers have limited experience with the potential for this type of approach for disease control in their animal population. A sound policy will require building the awareness among policy makers with a scientific and practical method of syndromic surveillance in animal shelters.