Open Data Kit to improve livestock disease surveillance and reporting in Uganda.Surveillance of livestock diseases is key to reduce their harm to livelihoods, development and even humans. Meat inspectors in Uganda are using the Open Data kit (ODK) tool to improve animal disease surveillance and reporting, and sharing their experiences and knowledge with peers. The tool was rolled out at a training workshop held in October 2021 at the Makerere University College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (COVAB).
The workshop aimed to boost, retool and equip inspectors in routine meat inspection procedures, hands-on skills in meat hygiene and food safety procedures, and knowledge of meat inspection regulations and standards.
Ensuring wholesome beef. How ODK works .
ODK is an open-source mobile data collection platform that enables users to fill out forms offline and send data to a server when a connection is found.
why reforms are necessary.
Once on the server, the data can be viewed, downloaded and acted upon. In the first six weeks following the training, the meat inspectors had uploaded more than 300 reports to the ILRI server.
Collected data can be used to determine prevalence of diseases, locations and age-group of animals affected, and inform response.
Speaking at the review meeting, Annie Cook, a senior scientist at ILRI, commended the inspectors for their interest in improving the reporting of data on disease surveillance at the points of slaughter, saying: 'As pioneers at using the ODK tool in the meat inspection sector, your feedback and input is important in refining the tool so that it is useful and can be used in the future.'
Reporting their experiences, the meat inspectors noted that the tool was user-friendly and most did not have major challenges in uploading data.
