Ontario Farm Call Surveillance Project 

Veterinarians in the field are frequently the first to identify unusual disease occurrences.  For example, veterinarians in Britain first recognized an unusual neurological problem in cattle well before BSE was identified as an emerging disease.   At that time regular reporting between practising veterinarians and the UK government did not exist. As a result, BSE reached epidemic proportions before it was recognized as a serious livestock and public health concern.  

Pooled disease observations from practising veterinarians across Ontario could allow for earlier outbreak detection, identification of new diseases, benchmarking of endemic disease and lead to enhanced disease prevention. Veterinary practitioners participating in an Ontario surveillance program identify and record the clinical signs observed on farms and forward the requested information to a database with the Veterinary Services Unit of OMAFRA.

Project outline:

• Individual veterinarians from multiple or single vet practices are welcome to enroll in the project.
• Veterinarians may choose to collect data from one or more of the four species of interest.
• Participating veterinarians will record the clinical signs observed on cattle, horse, swine, sheep or goat farms.
• A standardized format for collecting data (eg. paper or electronic) will be tailored to meet the preferences of the participating veterinarian.
• Farm reports or billing sheets already in use by the clinic can be adapted to collect the surveillance information. 
• Clinic staff will forward the data on a weekly basis. 
• Staff will have the option to mail, fax, email or send the data electronically via the web.

COMPENSATION:

Participating veterinarians wishing to further investigate a case where the client is unable or unwilling to pay for testing, have the ability to charge the full cost of the Animal Health Laboratory (AHL) diagnostics and post-mortems to the OMAFRA surveillance study.

Participating veterinarians may also charge the project $175.00 per farm call where they complete a post-mortem (PM), provided they meet the following requirements.  The completed PM invoice (template is provided) and the corresponding farm call data sheet must both sent to the project coordinator and received within 10 days of the farm call.

Veterinarians interested in participating or receiving more detail about the project should contact:

Kathy Zurbrigg, Veterinary Services Unit, OMAFRA.  Kathy.zurbrigg@ontario.ca   

Phone: 519-846-3418 Fax 1-888-602-6911 Cell 519-835-8831

DOWNLOAD FLYER IN PDF FORMAT