Development of an animal health surveillance ontology

Comprehensive reviews of veterinary syndromic surveillance have pointed out the hindrances to integration and interoperability among systems using different data sources. Discussions with syndromic surveillance experts in the fields of animal and public health, as well as computer scientists from the field of information management, have led to the conclusion that the solution needed is an ontology. Here we describe the advantages of the approach, and the methodological steps planned around the launch, in 2017, of a community of developers and users of the Animal Health Surveillance Ontology (AHSO). Development is expected to be community driven and the final product will be open-access