We live in a global world where humans, animals, plants, insects, bacteria, viruses are free to move from one part of the world to another every day.  This movement can result in animal health syndromes to appear in a geographic area that has never experienced an outbreak before or release isolated cases to the rest of the world.  The Syndromic Surveillance Program was developed as an early detection system when a large-scale release of a biologic agent occurs.  Once an outbreak is detected by a medical professional or veterinarian, Syndromic Surveillance helps determine the size, spread, and tempo of an outbreak or provide reassurance that a large-scale outbreak is not occurring.

Learn more about Syndromic Surveillance:

• Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases – Use AgConnect (a suite of customizable data integration and analysis products designed to enhance situational awareness) to access data tools and diagnostics  
• Syndromic surveillance – a key to disease monitoring – Bovine Veterinarian Magazine, March 4, 2013 (by Geni Wren)
• Track outbreaks around the world with the ProMed mapping tool