Simulation studies on the epidemiological impact of national identification and recording systems on the control of classical swine fever in Belgium

A state-transition simulation model was used to study the impact of four different national identification and recording (IR (2) a revised system which is about to be introduced in Belgium; (3) a system based on electronic identification; (4) a system similar to (3) but extended with electronic monitoring. The simulation model and the modelling approach are described in this paper. The main conclusions of the simulation studies were: (1) using the current IR (2) the CSF control can be remarkably improved in high- and medium-density regions using the revised IR (3) more sophisticated electronic IR (4) the CSF control strategy applied influences the effect of IR (5) critical aspects in CSF control are the tracing of carrier herds and the reduction of the so-called pre-period of the epidemic.