· The NCASP is the largest companion animal surveillance system in the world incorporating medical information from >44 states in the US and millions of individual pets yearly
· The main sources of data input are the >560 Banfield veterinary hospitals and the 18,000 private veterinary practices that use laboratory services provided by Antech Diagnostics
· The data from Banfield hospitals is updated and downloaded daily by Purdue University while that from Antech is obtained on an ad hoc basis
· The primary analytical tools used in data mining at Purdue are SAS and ESRI for GIS
· NCASP is maintained by Purdue University and Banfield the Pet Hospital and the information is shared with public health agencies and industry partners on a need to know basis. Currently there is no formal reporting mechanism when an signal is generated by NCASP.