Analysing WAHIS Animal Health Immediate Notifications to Understand Global Reporting Trends and Measure Early Warning Capacities (2005–2021)

Te World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS) from the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) is an online reporting system, essential for ensuring the transparency and accuracy of global animal health. One of the WOAH’s objectives is to disseminate timely notifcations to support countries’ eforts to prevent and control the spread of animal diseases. Tis paper describes the 3,263 exceptional events notifed through immediate notifcations sent to WOAH from 2005 to February 2021 and their distribution in time and space and by disease. To evaluate the timeliness of reporting, we defned and analysed two periods: the confrmation period (CT), which is the time interval between the disease onset date and the confrmation date, and the notifcation period (NT), defned as the interval between the disease confrmation and the date of reporting to WOAH. Te results showed that (1) the number of events increased over the analysis period; (2) the events were mainly reported for domestic animals and the data provided for wildlife were limited; (3) the ofcial source of disease introduction was often unknown when the event was reported; and (4) the global median CT value was 5 days while the global median NT value was 4 days, with a decreasing trend in both cases over the study period. Divergences were found across world regions and country income categories. Tis analysis provides interesting insights into the early detection capabilities and transparency of countries, globally and over time.