The overall goal of this project is to move AHSyS in Switzerland from research towards practice. Knowledge gained during previous and current projects will serve as a basis to implement a SyS system for the Swiss cattle population as a pilot. Thus, the project’s emphasis will primarily be placed on putting evaluated indicators and aberration detection algorithms into practice rather than developing new methodologies. The pilot system will demonstrate proof of concept for AHSyS in Switzerland, focusing on additional expected benefits of SyS such as providing overall situational awareness and targeted reporting for different stakeholders. More specific, the objectives will be to
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set up methodological and technical solutions for the FSVO to operate a SyS system for cattle
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explore the role of ALVPH for AHSyS
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explore what type of information can be produced by the pilot system, who will use it and for what purpose
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improve the understanding of trends or developments in health indicators of the Swiss cattle population
The data warehouse ALVPH will provide an adequate environment for integrating data streams from different sources. Offering various tools for data mining, analysis and visualisation, it will enable to generate standardised reports. Its flexible infrastructure can be further extended e.g. by adding scripts for the open source software R[1].
Additional benefits resulting from AHSyS including situational awareness or targeted reporting for different stakeholders can be explored and exemplified e.g. using bovine virus diarrhoea (BVD). Automated reports analysing mortality (e.g. stillbirths, abortions) or reproduction (e.g. time between calving) data streams have the potential to provide relevant information for the surveillance and control of BVD. Projects such as RiBeS[2] and RiBeS[3] global may benefit by generating standardised reports that combine slaughtering and laboratory data to provide information for cantonal veterinary services on the current status and coverage of the RiBeS surveillance.
Furthermore, the project will enable to identify opportunities and limitations in operationalising an AHSyS system in Switzerland and to gain valuable practical experiences in operating such a system. Additionally, synergies with other projects will be investigated, e.g. project 1.15.13 with regard to using health-related animal data for prioritisation of identified contacts in case of a disease outbreak and/or using contact tracing to support investigation of a signal from SyS.
[2] Cattle are sampled at the 7 largest Swiss slaughterhouses for surveillance of BVD, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), enzootic bovine leucosis (EBL) and Bluetongue.
[3] A study to investigate how RiBeS can be extended to all Swiss slaughterhouses.