Assessment of Echinococcus multilocularis surveillance reports submitted in 2016 in the context of Commission...

This report provides an analysis and critical assessment of the sampling strategy, the data collected, and the detection methods used in the Echinococcus multilocularis surveillance carried out in Finland, Ireland, Malta, United Kingdom (UK) and Norway in 2015 and included in the 2016 report in the context of Regulation (EU) No 1152/2011 regarding preventive health measures for the control of E. multilocularis infection in dogs. The surveillance aims at detecting the parasite, if present in any part of those countries. The 2015 surveillance reports of the four Member States and Norway were assessed by checking the description of the surveillance system for completeness against the relevant elements that need to be addressed in assessing the quality of E. multilocularis surveillance reports. The data reported on individual samples were assessed using the raw data submitted by each country via the EFSA Data Collection Framework (DCF). None of the four Member States, nor Norway, who are operating an E. multilocularis-specific surveillance programme to detect the parasite, should it be present in any part of those Member States, has recorded positive samples in 2015. Descriptive statistics were computed to check whether the legal requirements had been fulfilled. Under the assumption of an unbiased representative sampling and considering the sensitivity of the tests applied, the four MS (Finland, Ireland, Malta and the UK) and Norway have succeeded in implementing surveillance activities able to detect E. multilocularis at 1% prevalence maximum, with a 95% confidence level, fulfilling the requirement of Regulation (EU) No 1152/2011.