Table of Contents
If passive surveillance is being design, the testing protocol should be detailed for the confirmation of suspicions (definition of suspicions was addressed in section 4).
At this step, the surveillance designer should consider how units will be tested to obtain information about the hazard. The particular details of a testing protocol only need to be defined later, but design of the surveillance will depend on identifying (in conjunction with those responsible for laboratory analysis, when that’s the case) what methods will be chosen for testing the population.
6.1 Type of disease indicator/ test
Addressed in the surveillance components overview. Please see page “2- Overview of surveillance components”.
6.2 Type of sample to be collected
Addressed in the surveillance components overview. Please see page “2- Overview of surveillance components”.
6.3 Pooling
Are samples going to be pooled for testing? Is pooling going to be performed in the field or in the laboratory?
6.4 Screening/first test
Laboratory expertise should be consulted to define whether one single test will be used, or a combination of tests. The surveillance designer should list, for the screening test (or only test), any details needed regarding for instance thresholds for considering an animal as positive.
6.5 Confirmatory/ second test
This is the confirmatory test in cases where screening is used, or the second test of a design using parallel tests. Information to be documented includes the test to be used, as agreed with the laboratory, and any other important details the laboratory experts consider relevant.
6.6 Any other testing protocol details
Regarding the testing protocol delineated above, the surveillance designer should consider any further details needed to make sure the entire process is documented.
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