Optimizing syndromic health surveillance in free ranging great apes: the case of Gombe National Park.

ABSTRACT: 1. Syndromic surveillance is an incipient approach to early wildlife disease detection. Consequently, systematic assessments are needed for methodology validation in wildlife populations. 2. We evaluated the sensitivity of a syndromic surveillance protocol for respiratory disease detection among chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Empirical health, behavioural and demographic data were integrated with an agent-based, network model to simulate disease transmission and surveillance. 3. Surveillance sensitivity was estimated as 66% (95% Confidence Interval: 63.1, 68.8%) and 59.5% (95% Confidence Interval: 56.5%, 62.4%) for two monitoring methods (weekly count and prevalence thresholds, respectively), but differences among calendar quarters in outbreak size and surveillance sensitivi

SUBMITTER: Wolf TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6457473 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature