ORIGINAL ARTICLE SERVAL: A New Framework for the Evaluation of Animal Health Surveillance J. A. Drewe 1 , L. J. Hoinville 2 , A. J. C. Cook 2 , T. Floyd 2 , G. Gunn 3 and K. D. C. St€ ark 1 1 Royal Veterinary College, North Mymms, Hertfordshire, UK 2 Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Addlestone, Surrey, UK 3 Scottish Agricultural College, Inverness, UK Keywords: decision; economic analysis; epidemiology; tool Correspondence: J. A. Drewe. Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, North Mymms, Hertfordshire AL9 7TA, UK. Tel.: 01707 666051; Fax: 01707 666574; E-mail: jdrewe@rvc.ac.uk Received for publication October 1, 2012 doi:10.1111/tbed.12063 Summary Animal health surveillance programmes may change in response to altering requirements or perceived weaknesses but are seldom subjected to any formal evaluation to ensure that they provide valuable information in an efficient man- ner. The literature on the evaluation of animal health surveillance systems is sparse, and those that are published may be unstructured and therefore incom- plete. To address this gap, we have developed SERVAL, a SuRveillance EVALua- tion framework, which is novel and aims to be generic and therefore suitable for the evaluation of any animal health surveillance system. The inclusion of socio- economic criteria ensures that economic evaluation is an integral part of this framework. SERVAL was developed with input from a technical workshop of international experts followed by a consultation process involving providers and users of surveillance and evaluation data. It has been applied to a range of case studies encompassing different surveillance and evaluation objectives. Here, we describe the development, structure and application of the SERVAL framework. We discuss users’ experiences in applying SERVAL to evaluate animal health sur- veillance systems in Great Britain. Introduction Animal health surveillance can be defined as ‘the system- atic, continuous or repeated, measurement, collection, col- lation, analysis, interpretation and timely dissemination of animal health and welfare related data from defined popu- lations, essential for describing health hazard occurrence and to contribute to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of risk mitigation measures’ (Hoinville, 2011). The objective of surveillance may include monitoring of endemic diseases and the impact of control measures or the identification of (re-)emerging and exotic diseases that may have a significant impact upon public health, animal health, welfare and international trade (St € ark et al., 2006). Good surveillance provides information to allow action to be taken to protect animal and human health. The output of surveillance programmes assists in setting priorities and guiding effective prevention and control strategies. It also helps to monitor the progress and success of intervention programmes and, in the animal health field, to demonstrate the hazard-free status of animals and animal-derived prod- ucts (OIE, 2010). Ensuring that surveillance programmes are fit for purpose is therefore important. The benefits derived from surveillance programmes should be regularly reviewed to ensure they provide good value for the costs incurred in conducting the surveillance. The importance of ensuring that public health systems are efficient and effective is increasingly being recognized (Bravata et al., 2004; Hu et al., 2007; Meynard et al., 2008), and this applies equally to animal health surveillance sys- tems (Hu et al., 2007; Knight-Jones et al., 2010). Improv- ing the efficiency of surveillance is a key goal of the UK’s Veterinary Surveillance Strategy (Defra, 2003). Evaluation of surveillance programmes is essential to ensure that lim- ited resources are effectively used to provide the evidence required for protecting animal (and human) health. Such evaluations can lead to changes in surveillance methods, resulting in considerable financial savings (Hesterberg © 2013 Crown Copyright • Transboundary and Emerging Diseases. 1 This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases