The Swedish National Veterinary Institute

Department of Disease control and Biosecurity

The Swedish National Veterinary Institute (SVA) is a Swedish Government authority under the Ministry of Agriculture and is the largest and only official laboratory in veterinary medicine in Sweden. Total number of employees is 400, and activities at the institute are focused on diagnostic work and advisory services, official services/governmental duties and commissioned research. The Department of Disease control and Biosecurity at SVA provides expert advice on contagious diseases in animals, including zoonoses, including investigations and programmes for their control. The Department is responsible for the design, implementation and evaluation of active surveillance on statutory diseases as well as other infectious agents of national concern.

Role in the project

WP1: WP leader, task leader for 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3

WP2: contributor in task 2.2

WP3: contributor in tasks 3.1 and 3.3

Personnel Involved

Assoc. prof. Ann Lindberg
Graduated from The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) | Currently Head of Section of the Swedish Zoonosis Centre | Before joining the National Veterinary Institute, Epidemiologist with the Swedish Dairy Association | key expertise is the design, implementation and evaluation of large scale surveillance and control

Dr. Arianna Comin
Graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Padova (Italy) │PhD in Animal breeding and quantitative genetics (Padova, Italy) │PhD in Veterinary Epidemiology (Utrecht, The Netherlands). Formerly working as veterinary epidemiologist and data analyst at Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (Italy). │Her key expertise is design and evaluation of surveillance systems for animal diseases

Other relevant projects

EPIZONE: Network of Excellence for Epizootic Disease Diagnosis and Control.

ASFRISK: Evaluating and Controling the Risk of African Swine Fever in the EU. 

AniBioThreat: Bio-preparedness measures concerning prevention, detection and response to animal bio-threats.

Relevant Publications:

Frössling J, Wahlström H, Ågren ECC, Cameron A, Lindberg A & Lewerin SS 2013. Surveillance system sensitivities and probability of freedom from Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis infection in Swedish cattle Preventive Veterinary Medicine, vol. 108, pp. 47-62.

Espetvedt M, Lind AK, Wolff C, Rintakoski S, Virtala AM, Lindberg A. (2013) Nordic dairy farmers' threshold for contacting a veterinarian and consequences for disease recording: Mild clinical mastitis as an example. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, vol. 108:114-24.

Dórea FC, McEwen BJ, McNab WB, Revie CW, Sanchez J. 2013. Syndromic surveillance using veterinary laboratory data: data pre-processing and algorithm performance evaluation. J R Soc Interface doi: 10.1098/rsif.2013.0114.

Frössling J, Ohlson A, Björkman C, Håkansson N & Nöremark M 2012. ‘Application of network analysis parameters in risk-based surveillance – Examples based on cattle trade data and bovine infections in Sweden’ Preventive Veterinary Medicine, vol. 105, pp. 202-208.

Comin A, Stegeman A, Marangon S, Klinkenberg D 2012. Evaluating surveillance strategies for the early detection of low pathogenicity avian influenza infections. PLoS ONE 7(4) e35956. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035956

Comin A, Stegeman A., Klinkenberg D., Busani L., Marangon S 2011. Design and results of an intensive monitoring programme for avian influenza in meat type turkey flocks during four epidemics in northern Italy. Zoonoses Public Health. 58: 244–251

Dórea FC, Sanchez J, Revie CW. 2011. Veterinary syndromic surveillance: Current initiatives and potential for development.  Preventive Veterinary Medicine vol. 101, 1-17.

Nöremark M, Håkansson N, Lewerin SS, Lindberg A & Jonsson A, 2011. ‘Network analysis of cattle and pig movements in Sweden: measures relevant for disease control and risk based surveillance’, Preventive Veterinary Medicine, vol. 99, no. 2-4 , pp. 78-90.

Wahlström H, Frössling J, Lewerin SS, Ljung A, Cedersmyg M & Cameron A, 2010. ‘Demonstrating freedom from Mycobacterium bovis infection in Swedish farmed deer using non-survey data sources’, Preventive Veterinary Medicine vol. 94, no. 1-2, pp. 108-118.

Frössling J, Ågren EC, Eliasson-Selling L & Lewerin SS 2009. ‘Probability of freedom from disease after the first detection and eradication of PRRS in Sweden: scenario-tree modelling of the surveillance system’ Preventive Veterinary Medicine, vol. 91, no. 2-4, pp. 137-45.