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Scanning surveillance dashboards and analytics

APHA’s Surveillance Epidemiology and Data Analysis (SEDA) team helps the Species Expert Groups to collate, analyse and communicate surveillance data.

The team, made of data analysts and epidemiologist provides data management, analysis and epidemiological expertise and works with other groups across APHA, in industry and in academia to explore and implement data and methodologies that will enhance the value of surveillance information, including the development of disease surveillance dashboards.

Get in touch

If you would like to discuss any of the disease information shown in the dashboards, please contact your local APHA Veterinary Investigation Centre or SEDA@apha.gov.uk.
We welcome your feedback. If you have any comments or suggestions on the dashboard tools, please email SEDA@apha.gov.uk.

APHA’s interactive disease surveillance dashboards

APHA’s suite of interactive disease surveillance dashboards for Great Britain have been developed to share the surveillance information that is gathered from submissions to the GB veterinary diagnostic network.

Find out more information on Data Source and Limitations below.

Also see the Publications page for links to more scanning surveillance data and analysis:

Access the dashboards

Please read the guidance below and on the overview page at the links below for best use.

The dashboards allow you to choose a geographical area, a time period and an age group of interest. Having selected your choice of filters, you can use the dashboard to answer questions such as these:

  • What diagnoses have been made by the GB surveillance network in sheep from my local area?
  • What is the GB surveillance network's most common diagnosis in adult cattle?

Using the dashboards

To learn more about how the dashboard works, see the sheep disease surveillance dashboard video available on YouTube.

Additional guidance is provided on each dashboard.

Data Source and Limitations

The dashboards are limited to diagnoses recorded in the GB diagnostic surveillance database, known as VIDA (Veterinary Investigation Diagnosis Analysis), from submissions to the GB veterinary diagnostic network, which includes:

  • APHA’s Veterinary Investigation Centres in England and Wales
  • Scotland’s Rural College Disease Surveillance Centres in Scotland operated by SRUC Veterinary Services
  • APHA’s network of universities and other partners who provide post mortem examination services under contract
  • APHA Lasswade (for poultry only)

The dashboards don’t currently include diagnoses made by other laboratories. 

The maps simply show the count of diagnoses made in each county. A higher count of diagnoses in a county may occur for several reasons, including more submissions due to a larger number of livestock or livestock holdings in a county, increased vigilance among the local farmers and vets in response to a threat, diagnostic investigations as part of disease control initiatives being implemented, or regional increased use of the GB diagnostic network rather than commercial or veterinary practice laboratories. Diseases not requiring a laboratory diagnosis or in herds whose veterinary practice has their own diagnostic facilities may be under-represented in the data.

Note also that a submission may represent more than one individual animal, and that there may be more than one diagnosis allocated for a submission.

All of the above mean that the data and maps should not be used to make inferences or comparisons about levels of disease in different areas.