Surveillance projects in India include the World Bank-funded Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme. This has been modified recently to track animal diseases, including avian influenza. Costs for this nationally regulated system of surveillance are shared by the centre and the states.

Various government agencies have also been on alert. A Joint Monitoring Group constituted in 2004 has roped in different ministries to contain the bird flu. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has asked security forces to keep vigil on movement of poultry-related articles. The shipping ministry tracks poultry-related articles on ports and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests checks for unusual deaths in birds. The National Institute of Communicable Diseases in Delhi is the nodal agency of all monitoring and works in tandem with the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Besides, there are international surveillance systems such as the Global Early Warning System, the Food and Agricultural Organization's Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases, and the Global Influenza Surveillance Network. The last one is an informal arrangement between laboratories in 28 countries across the world. The network has operated with almost perfect coordination in 50 years, though it has no formal protocols. But it too is ill-equipped to deal with the global H5N1 pandemic.