Description of the application :

The Animal Disease Notification System (ADNS) application is a notification system that has as its main purpose the registration and documentation of certain important infectious animal diseases. It is mainly a management tool that ensures detailed information about outbreaks of these animal diseases in the countries that are connected to the application. This permits immediate access to information about contagious animal disease outbreaks and ensures that trade in live animals and products of animal origin is not affected unnecessarily.

ADNS is a system not directly related with food safety and it has no impact on public health.

Objectives :

The operational objective of the system is to ensure rapid exchange of information between the competent national authorities responsible for animal health and the Commission on outbreaks of contagious animal diseases.

The system allows the co-ordination and monitoring of outbreaks of contagious animal diseases and enables Member States and Commission services to take immediate measures to prevent the spread of the diseases in question.

Legal basis :

Council Directive 82/894/EEC (as last amended by Commission Decision 2008/650/EC ) provides the legal basis for ADNS. This Directive makes it compulsory for the Member States to notify primary and secondary outbreaks of listed infectious animal diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease, Classical swine fever, Newcastle disease, etc. In the same Directive are laid down the rules about the procedures for notification, in particular the information to be sent and the time limits for notification.

Commission Decision 2005/176/EC (repealing Decision 2000/807/EC) lays down the codified form and the codes for the notification of these contagious animal diseases. The list of Countries provided by this Decision includes the Member States and Andorra, Faroe Islands, Norway and Switzerland.

Procedures :

The Member States and the other countries connected to the application are responsible for supplying ADNS with the necessary information. Two types of outbreak exist:

• Primary outbreak: an outbreak of a contagious animal disease not epizootiologically linked with a previous outbreak in a region or the first outbreak in a previously unaffected region of a Member State. For this kind of outbreak all members need to be immediately informed. Council Directive 82/894/EEC provides that the notification must be sent within 24 hours of confirmation of the outbreak. The notification can be inserted directly into the ADNS system via the internet or sent by a structured e-mail to the Commission and the information is automatically inserted into the ADNS system. Once a primary outbreak is entered into the system, an e-mail is sent to all the countries connected to the application.
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• Secondary outbreak: an outbreak following a primary outbreak in an already infected region. For the secondary outbreak, the notification must be sent at least on the first working day of each week.

A weekly (every Friday at 3.30pm) e-mail message is sent to all the ADNS members summarising all primary and secondary outbreaks that have been entered into the system.

Commission Management :

The designated competent authorities in a Member State enters information on outbreaks into the ADNS. Information on primaries is automatically sent to all Member States and the Commission.

The Commission correlates data and transmits the information on primaries and secondary outbreaks to the veterinary headquarters of the Member States every week.

The veterinary authorities in Member States assess the risk. The risk management is shared between Member States and Commission services. The action of the Commission consists in the adoption of Decisions eventually through the Committee procedure ( Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health).

However, when the first outbreak of a contagious animal disease occurs (i.e. Classical Swine Fever or Foot-and-Mouth Disease), the situation has to be considered extremely urgent. In some cases, due to the particular high-speed diffusion of some diseases, the reaction has to be immediate. For this reason 24 hour (round the clock) control on these notifications is needed. In view of this, the Head of Unit in DG Sanco can be contacted via GSM/mobile telephone and in case of disease outbreaks, the Head of Unit and/or other colleagues can then come to the office to cover the epidemic event.

The presence of expert personnel with knowledge of veterinary legislation on animal health, contagious animal diseases and epidemiology is also needed to manage this kind of emergency situation.