Abstract
Animal diseases impact negatively on households and on national economies. In low-income countries, this pertains especially to socio-economic effects on household level. To control animal diseases and mitigate their impact, it is necessary to understand the epidemiology of the disease in its local context. Such understanding, gained through disease surveillance, is often lacking in resource-poor settings. Alternative surveillance methods have been developed to overcome some of the hurdles obstructing surveillance. The objective of this study was to evaluate and qualitatively compare three methods for surveillance of acute infectious diseases using African swine fever in northern Uganda as an example. Report-driven outbreak investigations, participatory rural appraisals (PRAs), and a household survey using a smartphone application were evaluated. All three methods had good disease-detecting capacity, and each of them detected many more outbreaks compared to those reported to the World Organization for Animal Health during the same time period. Apparent mortality rates were similar for the three methods although highest for the report-driven outbreak investigations, followed by the PRAs, and then the household survey. The three methods have different characteristics and the method of choice will depend on the surveillance objective. The optimal situation might be achieved by a combination of the methods: outbreak detection via smartphone-based real-time surveillance, outbreak investigation for collection of biological samples, and a PRA for a better understanding of the epidemiology of the specific outbreak. All three methods require initial investments and continuous efforts. The sustainability of the surveillance system should, therefore, be carefully evaluated before making such investments.
Highlights
Animal diseases have negative impacts on markets, trade, economy, and public health at farm and national levels [1, 2]
Outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF) were described at the household level and the group level (PRA) and were defined differently according to the respective study design
In east Africa, ASF is mostly associated with high mortality rates, as seen in this study [63, 64], even if outbreaks with lower mortality rates have been described [65,66,67]
Summary
Animal diseases have negative impacts on markets, trade, economy, and public health at farm and national levels [1, 2]. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and its “Progressive Control Pathway for Foot and Mouth Disease Control” [5], the first step in achieving control is to understand the disease epidemiology within its local context. This is a valid strategy for most animal diseases, but in low-income countries, this basic understanding is often missing [6]. Such epidemiological understanding is normally gained through some form of disease surveillance system [7, 8]
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