Known as Veterinary Companion Animal Surveillance System or VetCompass, the voluntary project will collect data on animal health from veterinary practices to allow further studies into the frequency and risk of disease in the Australian animal population, according to CSU.

VetCompass is led by the University of Sydney in collaboration with the Royal Veterinary College in Britain and six other Australian universities involved in educating veterinary scientists, including CSU.

Professor Shane Raidal and Dr Martin Combs from the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at CSU in Wagga Wagga are two of the project's chief investigators.

Dr Combs said, "When pet owners take their dog or cat to the vet, we'd like them to ask their vet to opt-in to VetCompass.

"The clinical records of animals, such as gender, age, breed and health problems are extracted from veterinary practices using the VetCompass software and collated in a central database for research.

"Each animal is given a unique code to allow researchers to follow an animal or treatment over time, but the animal owner and the pet cannot be identified. The only owner information collected is a postcode."

Professor Raidal hopes the system can be used to better understand disease patterns in wildlife,

"Injured or sick wild animal are often taken to local vets but the information on why they go to vets is often hard to collate.

"VetCompass provides an important way to aid the collection of information on what diseases are affecting native animals," Professor Raidal said.

All research conducted using this system will be freely available on the VetCompass website to ensure the entire community benefits from the project.

VetCompass is a voluntary project relying on the support of Australian veterinarians and pet owners.

Further information about VetCompass is available at vetcompass.com.au. Veterinarians can register their interest in signing-up by emailing vetcompass@sydney.edu.au.