Environmental surveillance: harnessing environmental sample data to protect animal health.

Authors

Bayyppa Gundallahalli Manjunatha Reddy, Uzma Jabeen, Hinal Kharva, Muthannan Andavar Ramakrishnan

Published in

Frontiers in veterinary science. Volume 13. Pages 1965480. Epub Sep 29, 2026.

Abstract

Infectious diseases in domestic animals-including those with zoonotic potential-impose a substantial global burden on food security, livelihoods, and public health. Environmental surveillance (ES) offers a critical complement to conventional animal-level diagnostics by detecting pathogens or their genetic signatures directly in the matrices through which they persist and spread: water, soil, air, manure, fomites, and arthropod vectors. This review synthesizes evidence across three analytical dimensions-matrix suitability, detection method performance, and wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE)-for 15 viral, bacterial, and parasitological diseases of domestic animals. Key findings reveal that matrix choice profoundly governs detection sensitivity: surface water and wetland sediments support infectious avian influenza virus isolation; pooled environmental feces and slurry outperform individual animal sampling for Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP); and electrostatic dust cloths enable simultaneous detection of peste-des-petits ruminants virus (PPRV) and capripoxviruses at livestock markets. Molecular methods, principally quantitative RT-PCR and droplet digital PCR, consistently outperform conventional culture in sensitivity and turnaround time, though viability-linked assays remain an important unresolved need. WBE is increasingly applied beyond human pathogens: piggery effluent surveillance for Japanese encephalitis virus and wastewater metagenomics for antimicrobial resistance exemplify its veterinary potential. Interpretive limitations persist, including matrix-driven inhibition, absence of harmonized protocols, and the challenge of equating nucleic-acid signals with infectious risk. Realizing the full promise of ES within a One Health framework requires standardized, field-validated sampling workflows, viability-linked molecular assays, and formal integration of environmental signals into routine veterinary surveillance and outbreak-response systems.

PMID:
42871598
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Oct 2026.

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