Summary
Bluetongue (BT) is an infectious, non-contagious
vector-borne disease. Since 1998, the disease has spread across the
Mediterranean Basin and into the Balkans. During a Workshop devoted
to the electronic identification of animals and bluetongue, held in
Civitella del Tronto, Teramo, in December 2002, the representatives
of Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean countries stated the need for
implementing a regional surveillance network capable of collecting
and disseminating relevant epidemiological data on BT. Consequently,
the Cooperation for implementing a surveillance network for
bluetongue in the Balkan area (East-BTNet) project was implemented
by the World Organisation for Animal Health Collaborating Centre for
veterinary training, epidemiology, food safety and animal welfare
(Istituto Zooprofilattico dellAbruzzo e del Molise G. Caporale).
The information network established within the East-BTNet project
is based on internet links and on geographic information system website
technologies. This facilitates the rapid collection, analysis, interpretation
and dissemination of large quantities of data generated by the national
monitoring programmes of countries participating in the project (Albania,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malta, Romania, Serbia and
Montenegro, Slovenia and Turkey).
Keywords
Balkans,
Bluetongue, Geographic information systems, Networks, Surveillance,
Web.
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