SLU researcher develops platform and app to control livestock diseases and antibiotics use in low-income countries

In low-income countries, patterns of livestock diseases and antimicrobial use (AMU) are largely unknown, and there are few high-quality laboratory facilities. Robust and actor-centred surveillance systems are needed and surveillance of the dynamics leading to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) should precede more advanced systems.

The project (MAD-tech-AMR in short) will develop a framework for surveillance of AMU, diseases that trigger AMU and perceived problems with AMR, for field testing in East African poultry production systems. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will be coupled with veterinary epidemiology and social science methods. The originality lies in using frontline technology particularly suited for challenges in resource-poor settings, merging low-resource input and high-technology output.

- We believe in this approach to a combined surveillance and control of infectious animal diseases and AMR, says the Swedish coordinator Susanna Sternberg Lewerin, Professor at the Department of Biomedical Science and Veterinary Public Health, SLU.

The overall aim is to provide an ICT framework for monitoring and control of AMU and AMR in livestock in low-income countries. A platform to register drug purchases and a database to monitor drug sales will be developed along with a mobile application for animal health advice and information about AMR. The ICT framework will be pilot-tested in poultry production systems in Kenya and Uganda. 

Partners in the project MAD-tech-AMR

SLU is coordinating the project through Susanna Sternberg Lewerin. The three other partners are the International Livestock Research Institute, Food safety & zoonoses and the University of Nairobi in Kenya, and the College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity in Uganda.