A brief history of ICAHS: from surveillance methods and the science-policy interface to impact
The driver behind the organisation of the first International Conference on Animal Health Surveillance (Lyon, 2011) was the lack of a platform to discuss operational and technical (as opposed to scientific or research-focused) elements of animal health surveillance. The conference was a resounding success, establishing a global community that has gone on to organise four subsequent conferences.
As a conference which aims to address topics of current relevance, ICAHS has moved with the times. What began as a meeting focused on how to build, optimise and evaluate surveillance systems has steadily evolved into a forum for exploring why and to what effect we do so.
The early conferences placed emphasis on methods, models, and metrics: developing the tools that could make animal health surveillance more robust and efficient. By 2014 (Havana, Cuba), attention was turning to how well those systems actually worked in practice, how they could be adapted to challenging contexts, and how to involve the people who use and depend on them.
There was also growing attention (e.g. in Rotorua, New Zealand, 2017) for innovations brought about by technological and conceptual developments: digital tools, data integration, and the emergence of One Health thinking, linking animal, human, and environmental health surveillance. This opened the door to greater collaboration across sectors and disciplines.
By 2022 (Copenhagen, Denmark), the conversation had progressed to more explicitly reflect the processes of translating surveillance findings into policy and action, integrating new data sources, and connecting health surveillance outputs directly to decision-making.
Today, ICAHS reflects a community that continues to look beyond practical solutions, always considering how things can be done better. The next step in this journey is taking shape: from producing information to achieving impact; from systems-based approaches to understanding how surveillance contributes to sustainable practices and measurable benefits for society; and from implementation in specific contexts to broader, cross-sectoral applications.