Operational Expert Groups for Animal Diseases

The Danish National Veterinary Expert group for Classical and African swine fever has been active during the last 10 years. The group is composed of experts in EU-legislation, in Danish pig production, in pig diseases and in virology. The group has participated in a national workshop on CSFV surveillance, in Contingency planning exercises and many efforts is done to keep the group updated on the current international situation for swine fevers. The group has been very stabile and especially the participation in a TAIEX workshop in 2005 in Romania was a very good basis for fruitful collaboration. The experiences gained from the workshop had been found very valuable during discussion of different epidemiological situations. The obligations of the expert group are both to follow the progress of eradication but definitely also to take care of some of the more time consuming discussions that could otherwise burden the Veterinary Authorities. Questions like “Could we be allowed to vaccinate the pigs in a Zoo if there is an outbreak?” and other veterinary issues that may have a high interest in the press; but which do not matter that much in the gross picture of the disease eradication could be handed over to the expert group.   Slide presentation and discussions The presentation gave examples of activities carried out by the Classical swine fever and African swine fever expert group during the last 10 years and how the expert group was kept alive. It was highlighted that a “good chemistry” between the members of the expert group was considered to be important for the success in “peacetime” and in a “war-time. The importance of the annual meetings of National Reference Laboratories organized by the EU Community Reference Laboratory for classical swine fever, Hannover was emphasized, as the meetings did not only cover diagnostic laboratory methods, but also valuable information on disease transmission and current epidemiological situations. The issue of independence was discussed. It was agreed that an expert should work as an independent person. He/she is deemed to work in a personal capacity and, in performing the work, does not represent any organization. The use of a declaration or statement of no conflict of interest was used in many evaluation projects and could also be applied for work in expert groups. A potential conflict of interest could occur, if an expert: - Was employed by a private company involved in production and sales of vaccine or reagents used in disease diagnostics - Was employed by the livestock sector and involved in the determination of animal movement restrictions - Is in any other situation that could cast doubt on his or her ability to evaluate disease control measures impartially. The meeting was also informed about an article describing the activities of the Danish National Veterinary Expert group for Classical and African swine fever published in the journal of the Danish Veterinary Medical Association