Veterinary medicines have been widely used for disease protection, growth promotion, and feed efficacy development of animals. Along with development of livestock and pet industry, veterinary medicine market in Korea has increased up to 1 billion US dollar in 2021. The national post-market surveillance (NMS) assessment is important system to manage quality control of veterinary medicines that have reached the open market in Korea. In this study, post marketed veterinary medicines have been analyzed particularly for the active ingredient contents based on the rule, “Tips on animal pharmaceutical audit” and monitored the noncomplicant compounds for prevention of adverse drug event. 6,620 veterinray medicines were chosen by NVRQS-SE10-V1 software program which we developed annually in Korea during 2018-2021. The programe chooses veterinary medicines which is 70% were selected products with high sales in order, 20% were selected products with low sales randomly and 10% were noncompliant product from last year automatically, as we input year`s sales and noncompliant product data. The Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA) leads collection of veterinary medicines from manufacturing companies, drug stores, and hospitals. The NMS assay was analyzed particularly for the active ingredient ingredients performed using liquid and gas chromatography, titration, UV/Vis spectrophometer, pH, and bioassay in Korea Animal Health Production Association (KAHPA). A total of 129 cases were deemed noncompliant and the average noncompliance rate for veterinray medicines was 1.9%. Among noncompliant products violating regulations, the leading cause was insufficient quantity of major ingredients. The compounds found to be noncompliant most frequently were tylosin, spiramycin, ampicillin, amoxicillin and colistin, respectively In this study, we analyzed the results of post marketing surveillance assay from 2018 to 2021 particularly violation rate and pattern. The overall trend indicated gradually decreasing noncompliance rate from 2.7% to 1.6%, suggesting that the quality of veterinary medicines has improved according to the steadily NMS assay and settlement of Korea Veterinary Good Manufacturing Practice (KVGMP) system.

Influenza A viruses (IAVs) are members of the family Orthomyxoviridae and genus Orthomyxovirus. Avian and mammalian species are the host of IAVs, which includes humans and dogs. Canine influenza virus (CIV) is an emerging pathogen that causes severe and acute respiratory diseases in dogs. This study monitored the antigen and antibody against CIV in dogs in the Republic of Korea (ROK) from 2016 to 2021. One thousand and seventy-two nasal swabs and 1,545 blood samples were collected from animal hospitals and animal shelters. Five nasal swabs in 2017 and seven in 2018 from stray dogs were positive for CIV according to RT-PCR. The prevalence of H3N2 CIV ranged from 9.5% to 24.8%, according to the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay. On the other hand, none of the serum samples from 2018 to 2021 showed seropositivity against the avian H5, H7, and H9 viruses. The HI titers for H3N2 ranged from 16 to 512. The distribution of HI titer 16–32 was 57.6% in seropositive samples. The pet dogs were vaccinated against CIV, but the stray and military dogs were unvaccinated. In 2017 and 2018, the seroprevalence of CIV in stray dogs was higher than in the other years, and viral RNA was detected in nasal swabs. It may mean previous exposure of stray dogs to CIV. With the increasing number of pet dogs and the close contact between humans and dogs, canines could serve as an intermediate host for transmitting IAVs to humans. Therefore, continuous surveillance of CIV is needed for public health and the potential emergence of novel zoonotic viruses.

Global concerns have grown regarding emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) caused by previously unknown pathogens. Considering that strengthening surveillance capacity for unknown diseases is one of the core capacities for preparedness and early response to EIDs, identifying areas with poor capacity could be beneficial to prioritize regions for the improvement of surveillance. In this regard, we aimed to develop prediction models to identify high risk areas for low surveillance capacity for unknown diseases in a global scale. Unexplained death events reported between 2015 and 2019 were collected from two internet-based surveillance systems, ProMED-mail and Global Public Health Intelligence Network. From the reports, the number of reported unexplained deaths at the first report and the time gap between death and report were extracted as measures for sensitivity and timeliness of surveillance capacity, respectively. Using geographical locations of the reports and published global scale spatial data, including demographic, socioeconomic, public health and geographical variables, we fitted two boosted regression tree models to predict regions with the low sensitivity and timeliness. The performance of prediction model for the low sensitivity showed moderate validity, but in terms of the model for timeliness, the performance was unreliable. Therefore, we provided predicted risk only for low sensitivity. The mean predicted risks of low sensitivity were, respectively, 45.2%, 37.4%, 12.5%, and 3.0% in low-income, lower middle-income, upper middle-income, and high-income countries. Enhancing surveillance capacity in low-income countries is highly required, given the predicted low level of sensitivity despite the importance of early response.

Pancreatic cancer can arise in the background of chronic pancreatitis (CP). The relative risks for pancreatic cancer in CP vary considerably according to other contributing factors such as disease duration, excess alcohol consumption, tobacco consumption, eating habits, physical activity, and late-onset diabetes. The incidence of pancreatic cancer is estimated to be about 10 per 105 per year, and the incidence and prevalence of CP are estimated to be 5-12 per 105 and 50 per 105 per year, respectively. The pooled relative risk estimates for pancreatic cancer in CP patients range from 2.7 to 13.3. Subsets of CP subjects with a family history of pancreatic cancer or those with newly developed diabetes over the age of 50 have a higher risk for pancreatic cancer. However, the prevalence of pancreatic cancer is not high enough to justify general screening of the adult CP population. Thus, it is necessary to select subsets of CP cohorts with a significantly high risk of pancreatic cancer. We need a better overall disease model that can define the interaction of multiple risk factors and their cumulative or potential effects on pancreatic cancer.

Inaccurate amounts of active ingredients in disinfectants can result in inefficiency or in potential toxicity to the environment and living organisms. This may lead to disinfection failure, and consequently, biosecurity failure. To ensure the efficiency of disinfectants and their ongoing compliance with safety and quality requirements, continuous and systematic post-market surveillance studies are needed. Herein, the content of ten commercial disinfectants purchased in 2021 was analyzed. Selective analytical techniques, such as automated titration, colorimetry, and high-performance liquid chromatography, were used to evaluate the content of several active ingredients present in disinfectants, such as potassium peroxymonosulfate, benzalkonium chloride, glutaraldehyde, phosphoric acid, citric acid, and malic acid. The obtained values were then compared with the label claims; the active ingredient contents of all disinfectants were within the acceptable range of 90–120% of the label claim.