The main objective of the project is to evaluate the added value of CBS with and without a One Health approach, compared to the currently ongoing SyS systems and SyS data otherwise collected by veterinarians. It can be seen as a pilot study to evaluate whether CBS is accepted, technically functioning, data generated can be valuably used and whether they deliver any added value. A side effect of the project will be that the animal owner population will be sensitized for the importance of disease prevention and early detection through active contribution.
The added value of CBS will be evaluated in relation to two aspects:
- What is the quality and quantity of data generated by CBS compared to current SyS systems and data otherwise collected by veterinarians? How much earlier can a problem in a population be recognized?
- What is the association of disease occurrence between humans and animals? How much earlier can problems in a population be detected when data from both sectors are available and analyzed interrelatedly?
The first aspect will be investigated in Switzerland. We propose to address the equine and pig owner community because a) comparative data from ongoing SyS programs are available and b) they represent animal owner groups with largely different interests.
The second aspect will be investigated in Chad because of two reasons. First, One Health problems such as zoonoses are by far more prevalent in Chad than in Switzerland and therefore the amount of data to be collected will increase substantially when the study is undertaken in Chad. This is important for this pilot study which serves as a proof of concept whether or not the data generated by a One Health approach will lead to an increase in surveillance sensitivity and timeliness. Second, the collection of data in a One Health concept was already successfully demonstrated in Chad in the past for demographic purposes and a tool is available that can to be modified for collecting health data. We will collect health data from agro-pastoralists on both the human and animal population. By analyzing animal data separately and in combination with human data the additional benefit of the One Health approach can be quantified. The results of the Chadian dataset will also be of great value for Switzerland through the evaluation of increased quantity and quality of data generated when collected simultaneously in the human and animal population, which is expected to optimize early detection. It will also contribute to the epidemiological knowledge of multi-host diseases, including zoonoses.
The project is divided into two work packages (WP):
The objective of the WP1 is to develop and to pre-test a culturally validated geo-referenced mobile phone application (further referred as “app”) to collect CBS data both in Switzerland and Chad. Via an online survey, motivation and expectation of the animal owners will be explored. Syndromes, symptoms and observations (SSO) will be defined in workshops with experts from the medical, social science and technical field and end-users in close collaboration with members of the FSVO.
Through WP1, we will be able to answer the following questions:
- Is it possible to collect valuable data directly from the animal owners? How large is the acceptance of animal owners to contribute in CBS systems and do participating animal owners eventually report data?
- What do the animal owners expect as a feedback for participating and contributing data?
The objective of the WP2 will be to quantify the added value of thereby collected data, compared to records of current surveillance systems and other data recorded by veterinarians.
We will analyze two sets of data:
- data collected via CBS in Switzerland in comparison with data collected via Equinella and PathoPig and SyS data otherwise collected by veterinarians (Swine Health Service (Schweinegesundheitsdienst, SGD), clinics);
- data collected via CBS in Chad from animals and humans separately and in combination.
Through WP2, we will be able to answer the following questions:
- How much less underreporting can be expected through CBS recordings compared to veterinarian based SyS systems (data quantity)?
- How much do the sensitivity and timeliness of the surveillance system increase when CBS are used compared to data collected by veterinarians (data quality)?
