The case for comprehensive surveillance

Bolstering surveillance capacity and ensuring effectiveness of food and water safety programs are considered key to reducing the burden of enteric disease in Canada, as evidenced through recent national and provincial reports:

• 1999 and 2002 Auditor General of Canada reports highlight the need to build surveillance capacity, and express particular concern with infectious disease surveillance and outbreak management.

• Part 2 of the Walkerton Commission of Inquiry 2002 report, A Strategy for Safe Drinking Water by Justice Dennis O'Connor, calls for a multi-barrier “source to tap” approach to ensuring safe drinking water, as well as improved water protection regulations, training and communication among stakeholders.

• The 2003 Renewal of Public Health in Canada report by Dr. David Naylor underlines the Auditor General's 1999 and 2002 recommendations on building capacity in infectious disease surveillance, and also calls for improved epidemiological training and related capacity in private and public laboratories.

• The 2004 report of the Meat Regulatory and Inspection Review, Farm to Fork: A Strategy for Meat Safety in Ontario by Justice Roland J. Haines, calls for foodborne disease surveillance through coordinated investigation of agriculture, retail food and the human population, as integral to our food safety system.