Infectious Diseases

Research and surveillance of vaccine preventable disease and vaccine uptake in companion animals in the UK.

This project aims to characterise vaccine preventable diseases using electronic health records (EHRs) available through the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network (SAVSNET), alongside diagnostic testing data from participating veterinary diagnostic laboratories. We look at trends in vaccine uptake among companion animals and assess whether these are affected by animal characteristics (for example, sex, breed or species) or their owners geographical and social demographic circumstances.

In parallel, vaccine preventable disease test results are monitored in diagnostic laboratory data, enabling surveillance of disease occurrence, geographical spread and seasonality of diseases across the UK. Further investigation through sequencing analysis using our virtual biobank, also helps us to better understand the evolution and transmission of vaccine preventable diseases. This enables us to provide veterinary practices and owners with evidence to make informed decisions about their pets.

We aim to maintain these data steams and associated dashboards with regular updates to enable the rapid identification of emerging trends and to provide insights to veterinary professionals, researchers and pet owners. We are grateful to the participating veterinary practices and diagnostic laboratories for their continued support, without which this work would not be possible.

We are extremely grateful to all our participating laboratories without whom this research would not be possible