DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17467038
title: Pixels to Pathogens: WOAH Animal Diseases Visible Signs Catalog for Image-Based Surveillance

description: This catalogue contains the curated and analysed metadata for infectious animal diseases. It was compiled to assess the suitability of these diseases for non-invasive, image-based surveillance systems.

The underlying data was systematically gathered from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) animal diseases portal (https://www.woah.org/en/what-we-do/animal-health-and-welfare/animal-diseases/) as its primary source, supplemented by the Merck Veterinary Manual and targeted literature searches.

Data Structure and Curation

The process started with a master disease list of 204 unique infectious diseases. To fully capture the diversity of clinical presentation, this information was initially extracted into a detailed disease-host database containing 295 records.

A separate record was created whenever a source provided distinct information for a specific host taxon, causative pathogen, or host context (e.g., a specific WOAH entry for wildlife). For example, the single conceptual disease ‘Toxoplasmosis’ was expanded into four separate records to capture distinct clinical information documented for mammals and birds, in both wildlife and general/livestock contexts.

Data Contents

The database includes the following information, with explanations for each field:





[WOAH_disease_name]: The long-form disease name from the WOAH Animal Diseases database, including additional information such as wildlife disease status.




[unique_disease_name]: The standardised, short-form disease name used for analysis.




[WOAH_listed_disease]: Binary (1/0) status indicating if the disease is listed by WOAH.




[WOAH_emerging_disease]: Binary (1/0) status indicating if the disease is considered emerging by WOAH.




[WOAH_official_disease_status]: Binary (1/0) status of the official disease status.




[WOAH_designated_wildlife]: Binary (1/0) status indicating if the disease is formally designated by WOAH as important for wildlife.




[other_wildlife_associated]: Binary (1/0) status indicating if a wildlife host was identified via supplementary literature.




[taxa]: The host taxonomic class (molluscs, insects, crustaceans, amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds, mammals).




[transmission]: Verbatim text describing the transmission route from the source document.




[transmission_category]: The modes of transmission categorised for analysis (Direct, Indirect, and/or Vector, or undetermined).




[pathogen_long]: The causative pathogen, including additional information relating to family and/or genus and/or alternative names.




[pathogen]: The causative pathogen.




[pathogen_class]: The broad taxonomic class of the pathogen (prion, virus, bacterium, protist, fungi, ectoparasite, helminth).




[zoonotic]: Binary (1/0) status indicating if the disease has zoonotic potential.




[signs_text]: Verbatim description of the clinical signs extracted from the source documents.




[visible_signs]: A summarised list of the specific visible signs recorded.




[visible]: Binary (1/0) classification indicating the presence of at least one external, observable sign (the primary response variable).




[visible_signs_categories]: Codes for specific visible signs used in analysis. The categories are:



ee - external exudate (e.g., nasal discharge, excessive mucus production); 

cc - colour change (e.g., reddening of the body, dullness, gangrene); 

fsfc - fur/skin/feather change (e.g., ruffled feathers, protruding scales, fin rot, fur loss);

m - morphology (e.g., curling of the foot, protruding eyes); 

so - swelling/oedema (e.g., swollen joints, bloating, enlarged lymph glands); 

le - lesion (e.g., haemorrhaging, necrosis, ulcers, blisters); 

aw - anorexia/weight loss (e.g., atrophy of the body); 

co - conjunctivitis (e.g., swollen eyes, lachrymation, blepharitis).





[pathognomonic]: Binary (1/0) status indicating if the visible signs are considered pathognomonic (uniquely diagnostic).




Citations or URLs for the source documents used for extraction:





transmission_source, pathogen_source, zoonotic_source, signs_source, other_wildlife_associated_source