Synoptic table for surveillance scenarios for lumpy skin disease

The Standing Group of Experts on lumpy skin disease (LSD) for South-East Europe under the GF-TADs umbrella recommended that all countries in South-East Europe, affected or at risk for LSD, should collaborate within the GF-TADs to draft a regional roadmap on an LSD exit strategy from 2018 onwards. This recommendation has triggered a mandate to EFSA in which it is asked to assess the effectiveness of different surveillance systems with different objectives, i.e. early detection or demonstration of freedom from disease, in the following contexts:

(a) in areas or countries at risk of LSD, where no LSD outbreaks have occurred and LSD vaccination was never carried out;

(b) in areas or countries at risk of LSD, where no LSD outbreaks have occurred and where LSD vaccination is carried out;

(c) in areas where no LSD outbreaks have occurred and LSD preventive vaccination was carried out, and then stopped;

(d) in areas where LSD outbreaks have been confirmed, and vaccination is stopped.

For planning surveillance several elements should be considered: the objectives and related design prevalence, the epidemiological situation, the immunological status of the host population, the geographical area and the season, the type of surveillance (active or passive), the diagnostic methods including clinical detection (considered the most effective method for early detection of LSD), the target population, the sample size and frequency. Here a synoptic table is presented where each of these elements are discussed for each of the four scenarios given above.