A Smartphone-Based Application Improves the Accuracy, Completeness, and Timeliness of Cattle Disease Reporting and Surveillance in Ethiopia
Accurate disease reporting, ideally in near real time, is a prerequisite to detecting disease outbreaks and implementing appropriate measures for their control. This study compared the performance of the traditional paper-based approach to animal disease reporting in Ethiopia to one using an applica...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Veterinary Science |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fvets.2018.00002/full |
| _version_ | 1818306783571083264 |
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| author | Tariku Jibat Beyene Tariku Jibat Beyene Fentahun Asfaw Yitbarek Getachew Takele Beyene Tufa Iain Collins Ashenafi Feyisa Beyi Ashenafi Feyisa Beyi Crawford W. Revie |
| author_facet | Tariku Jibat Beyene Tariku Jibat Beyene Fentahun Asfaw Yitbarek Getachew Takele Beyene Tufa Iain Collins Ashenafi Feyisa Beyi Ashenafi Feyisa Beyi Crawford W. Revie |
| author_sort | Tariku Jibat Beyene |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Accurate disease reporting, ideally in near real time, is a prerequisite to detecting disease outbreaks and implementing appropriate measures for their control. This study compared the performance of the traditional paper-based approach to animal disease reporting in Ethiopia to one using an application running on smartphones. In the traditional approach, the total number of cases for each disease or syndrome was aggregated by animal species and reported to each administrative level at monthly intervals; while in the case of the smartphone application demographic information, a detailed list of presenting signs, in addition to the putative disease diagnosis were immediately available to all administrative levels via a Cloud-based server. While the smartphone-based approach resulted in much more timely reporting, there were delays due to limited connectivity; these ranged on average from 2 days (in well-connected areas) up to 13 days (in more rural locations). We outline the challenges that would likely be associated with any widespread rollout of a smartphone-based approach such as the one described in this study but demonstrate that in the long run the approach offers significant benefits in terms of timeliness of disease reporting, improved data integrity and greatly improved animal disease surveillance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T06:47:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-11b7ea5129ec4a4db1359df02d769186 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2297-1769 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T06:47:58Z |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Veterinary Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-11b7ea5129ec4a4db1359df02d7691862022-12-21T23:56:13ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Veterinary Science2297-17692018-01-01510.3389/fvets.2018.00002300306A Smartphone-Based Application Improves the Accuracy, Completeness, and Timeliness of Cattle Disease Reporting and Surveillance in EthiopiaTariku Jibat Beyene0Tariku Jibat Beyene1Fentahun Asfaw2Yitbarek Getachew3Takele Beyene Tufa4Iain Collins5Ashenafi Feyisa Beyi6Ashenafi Feyisa Beyi7Crawford W. Revie8College of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture, Addis Ababa University, Bishoftu, EthiopiaDepartment of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, United StatesCollege of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture, Addis Ababa University, Bishoftu, EthiopiaCollege of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture, Addis Ababa University, Bishoftu, EthiopiaCollege of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture, Addis Ababa University, Bishoftu, EthiopiaCojengo Ltd, Glasgow, United KingdomCollege of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture, Addis Ababa University, Bishoftu, EthiopiaDepartment of Animal Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United StatesDepartment of Health Management, Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI, CanadaAccurate disease reporting, ideally in near real time, is a prerequisite to detecting disease outbreaks and implementing appropriate measures for their control. This study compared the performance of the traditional paper-based approach to animal disease reporting in Ethiopia to one using an application running on smartphones. In the traditional approach, the total number of cases for each disease or syndrome was aggregated by animal species and reported to each administrative level at monthly intervals; while in the case of the smartphone application demographic information, a detailed list of presenting signs, in addition to the putative disease diagnosis were immediately available to all administrative levels via a Cloud-based server. While the smartphone-based approach resulted in much more timely reporting, there were delays due to limited connectivity; these ranged on average from 2 days (in well-connected areas) up to 13 days (in more rural locations). We outline the challenges that would likely be associated with any widespread rollout of a smartphone-based approach such as the one described in this study but demonstrate that in the long run the approach offers significant benefits in terms of timeliness of disease reporting, improved data integrity and greatly improved animal disease surveillance.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fvets.2018.00002/fullcattle diseasedata integritydiagnosissmartphone applicationsurveillance |
| spellingShingle | Tariku Jibat Beyene Tariku Jibat Beyene Fentahun Asfaw Yitbarek Getachew Takele Beyene Tufa Iain Collins Ashenafi Feyisa Beyi Ashenafi Feyisa Beyi Crawford W. Revie A Smartphone-Based Application Improves the Accuracy, Completeness, and Timeliness of Cattle Disease Reporting and Surveillance in Ethiopia Frontiers in Veterinary Science cattle disease data integrity diagnosis smartphone application surveillance |
| title | A Smartphone-Based Application Improves the Accuracy, Completeness, and Timeliness of Cattle Disease Reporting and Surveillance in Ethiopia |
| title_full | A Smartphone-Based Application Improves the Accuracy, Completeness, and Timeliness of Cattle Disease Reporting and Surveillance in Ethiopia |
| title_fullStr | A Smartphone-Based Application Improves the Accuracy, Completeness, and Timeliness of Cattle Disease Reporting and Surveillance in Ethiopia |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Smartphone-Based Application Improves the Accuracy, Completeness, and Timeliness of Cattle Disease Reporting and Surveillance in Ethiopia |
| title_short | A Smartphone-Based Application Improves the Accuracy, Completeness, and Timeliness of Cattle Disease Reporting and Surveillance in Ethiopia |
| title_sort | smartphone based application improves the accuracy completeness and timeliness of cattle disease reporting and surveillance in ethiopia |
| topic | cattle disease data integrity diagnosis smartphone application surveillance |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fvets.2018.00002/full |
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