CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
Summary The aim of this work, performed in the framework of the One Health (OH) European Joint Program, was to identify barriers (issues) and opportunities (suggestions) for an integrated OH surveillance of food-borne diseases in Belgium, France, Sweden, Norway.
Information has been collected through 20 interviews with professionals with selected profiles from the four countries (human epidemiologists, persons from administration in charge of planning the annual food chain surveillance, veterinary epidemiologists, transversal coordinators of national agencies positioned on the link between risk analysis and management, coordinators of the human and veterinary National Reference laboratories). The information collected through the interviews has been analysed following the thematic analysis methodology.
According to the analysis performed, the barriers and opportunities identified by the interviewees were grouped in eight themes: (1) Data governance, (2) Set-up and operations of the surveillance system, (3) Coordination, (4) Communication, (5) Regulations (political legislations and procedures), (6) Industry’s challenges, (7) Funding, (8) Training and education. The most important barriers for all countries were indicated for the themes (1) and (2). A detailed analysis of the collected information has also been performed per identified theme, with various practical issues and opportunities being identified, taking into account the particularities of each country.
The results show that there is room for improvement in food-borne disease surveillance of microbiological pathogens towards a OH approach, especially regarding the themes identified as most important. The results can be used when revising existing systems, or when developing new systems for food-borne disease surveillance from a OH perspective.