DATAQUEST – INVENTARIO DE FUENTES DE DATOS PARA LA IDENTIFICACIÓN DE ENFERMEDADES EMERGENTES EN LA POBLACIÓN ACUÍCOLA EUROPEA.

The project is an EFSA negotiated procedure designed to prepare an inventory and a quality assessment of data sources relevant for identifying potential emerging diseases posing a threat to the European aquaculture fish population.
The proposal will achieve its objectives through a series of structured measures designed for
defining the requirement for subsequent analytical and assessment activities. The work
programme aims to use direct and indirect survey techniques for identifying relevant data
sources, followed by a determination of their quality through scoring of specific data class
parameters and indicators. This will lead to the identification of poor quality data and any key areas where data is currently missing that could help to support associated risk assessment.
Recommendations to cover data short falls of relevance to European aquaculture populations will then be made.
The planned approach will help deal with the problem of fragmentation inherent in the
provision of relevant data from current national European surveillance programmes and other sources. There is currently no central infrastructure that can promote transnational data
exchange flow or provide an overview of the results generated from existing sources.
Essentially, an inventory would provide a needed pool of information, as well as being a source of co-operation between the research community, surveillance and monitoring programmes, and those responsible for data interpretation. A knowledge of any data gaps would help to reduce uncertainty in future risk assessment of emerging fish diseases.
Improved data availability will support scientists and managers, as well as advisory agencies
and decision makers. However, providing additional up to date information for identifying
emerging fish diseases will help to protect European aquaculture populations through the use
of data for identifying entry routes and establishment potential for emerging diseases. The
proposed inventory is therefore a tool to support the optimal use of existing data sources by
providing a single catalogued resource of fish health data.