Abstract
Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) is present in many countries globally, including Tanzania, especially Gairo district. The data shows that 78% of livestock keepers in Gairo district had already observed FMD infection in their cattle, and the pastoral communities were mostly affected. Currently, vaccination is the main tool for controlling FMD because there are no therapeutic intervention tools. Therefore, effective communication among livestock stakeholders can be used as an essential tool of preparedness for the disease’s impact. This study had two specific objectives: (i) to explore the challenges of communicating FMD events among livestock keepers and other livestock stakeholders in Gairo district and (ii) to propose an information system for sharing FMD events among the livestock stakeholders in Gairo district. The study found that there was a delay when communicating FMD events in Gairo district due to the long chain of information flow. Therefore, the system aims to reduce the communication chain by allowing livestock keepers to report disease outbreaks directly to the system. Livestock keepers may also access FMD precaution measures, negative impacts, clinical signs transmission ways, and current outbreaks directly from the system using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), Short Message Services (SMS), robocalls, and feature phones. The system also provides a common platform for sharing FMD outbreaks data and events to other stakeholders based on the system’s privileges. In this study, a closed-ended interview using a questionnaire was used for data collection. The PHP hypertext processor, jQuery, HTML, JSON, JavaScript, Apache web server, and MySQL database were used for developing the system.
Highlights
Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) is a transboundary disease caused by the virus from the Picornaviridae family. e disease affects domestic and wild cloven-hooved animals such as sheep, goats, pigs, and buffaloes [1]
During determining the FMD status, 170 livestock keepers out of 180 responded to the question that either they had already observed FMD infection in their cattle or not. e question was a single-response question. e livestock keepers responded “yes” to the question, asking to mention at least three FMD clinical signs to validate their answers. e data found that 133 (78%) of the interviewed livestock keepers had already observed FMD infection in their cattle (Table 1). e larger number was experienced in pastoralist community that 97% of them had already observed FMD infection in their cattle, followed by agropastoral community, 93% (Table 1)
One hundred eighty (180) livestock keepers were interviewed to identify the categories of mobile phones they own and usage and their education level. e researcher used multiple- and single-response questions, and the number of responses varies according to the question. e data found that 91% of 6°0′0′′S
Summary
Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) is a transboundary disease caused by the virus from the Picornaviridae family. e disease affects domestic and wild cloven-hooved animals such as sheep, goats, pigs, and buffaloes [1]. Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) is a transboundary disease caused by the virus from the Picornaviridae family. The presence of FMD in livestock hinders international trade. Young animals sometimes die from FMD [2]. Ere are currently seven known serotypes of FMD virus (A, O, C, SAT1, SAT2, SAT3, and Asia1) and many more subtypes in the world. FMD is currently present in Asia and Africa and one country in South America. In Tanzania, Gairo is among the districts facing FMD challenges several times. The disease has no cure, and vaccination is the most important control measure for FMD. Erefore, the vaccines must match the virus strain circulating in livestock for effective prevention. FMD-free countries prohibit the importation of FMD-vaccinated animal products or only
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