How to improve the detection of animal emerging diseases ? A two-level (veterinarian/farmer) approach based on an Internet-Oracle® database

No functional system exists for detecting emerging animal disease without targeting at a specific disease. Our EPIDEM research program aims at developing epidemiological methodology to study emerging animal diseases with a strong link to clinical observations. Two kinds of diseases are registered: “atypical syndromes” (as potential unknown emerging disease) and “model diseases”. The program has two components (1) a farmer component via routine surveys in farms, and (2) a veterinarian component via clinical case notification on the “emergences” website (http://www.inra.fr/maladies-emergentes). The website is linked to an Oracle(R) database and developed to be applicable to any country and any animal species