How local socio-economic and cultural factors shape animal health surveillance and control programs

Efficient animal disease surveillance systems are essential to prevent disease epidemics and the emergence of zoonotic threats. Many socio-cultural, economical and political drivers can affect their performance and their costs. Within the past ten years CIRAD and his partners have developed and applied innovative evaluation tools activities in South East Asia and Europe to better understand local constraints impairing animal health surveillance performances. The studies looked at the perceived costs and benefits of avian influenza passive surveillance in Vietnam and in Thailand (1); novel methodology for economic evaluation of swine influenza surveillance in Vietnam integrating functional and socio- economic factors (2); participatory tools to evaluate African Swine Fever surveillance system in Corsica (France) (3) and the acceptability of the bovine tuberculosis surveillance in Belgium and of Classical Swine Fever surveillance in wild boar in Germany (4, 5). This paper presents a comparative analysis of the constraints observed by these studies, both in developed and developing countries and its implication for animal health surveillance improvement. North and South countries share common constraints on local actors’ reporting decision. However, the origin and the responses to these constraints differ from one setting to the other, linked to specific socio-cultural practices rather than the level of economic development of the country. Similarities and differences were linked to the type and level of structuration of the breeding sector concerned. All the studies used common evaluation tools mainly based on participatory approaches, although the object of evaluation varied. This highlights the flexibility of the approach, which could be used under different socio-economic contexts but also across different disciplinary fields. This comparative analysis highlights similarities and key differences in local constraints impacting disease reporting in North and South settings. Such information is critical to ensure acceptability and sustainability of the surveillance systems and ensure proper resources management.
Research impact highlights: This study present a first attempt to compare socio and economic factors affecting the performances of animal health surveillance in low, middle and high income countries. This comparative analysis highlights the importance of considering local social, economic and cultural elements to improve disease surveillance at the global level.