OIE Workshop on Animal Health Information Technologies and Introduction of Geographical Information System (Manila, 24-28 February 2003)
The OIE Workshop on Animal Health Information Technologies and Introduction of Geographical Information System was held at Holiday Inn Manila on 24-28 February 2003, in collaboration with the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), Philippines and back to back with the 10th meeting of the Animal Health and Production Information System for ASEAN (AHPISA).
The purpose of the Workshop was to discuss and provide updated information technologies regarding Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in South-East Asia and to introduce Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
The Workshop was attended by 30 participants from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and international organisations of OIE (OIE Regional Representation in Tokyo and OIE Regional Coordination Unit (RCU) for FMD control campaign in South-East Asia (SEAFMD)) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Philippines.
The Workshop was facilitated by Dr Ronello Abila, Chief of Animal Health Division, BAI.
The opening addresses were delivered by Dr Jose Molina, Director of BAI, Department of Agriculture and Chairperson of the Organizing Committee of the Workshop, Dr Teruhide Fujita, OIE Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, in Tokyo and Dr John Edwards, OIE Regional Coordinator of SEAFMD RCU based in Bangkok. All of them welcomed the participants and mentioned the importance of information technologies regarding animal health, in particular information exchange in a transparent and timely manner.
Dr Angus Cameron, AusVet Animal Health Services, Australia played the major role as the resource person on animal information technologies and GIS for the whole period of the Workshop.
As the introduction to the Workshop, Dr Fujita presented his paper on OIE animal information systems and Dr Edwards reported the recommendations of the SEAFMD Sub-Commission meeting held in Penang, Malaysia last year. Dr Cameron spoke about Visions for the workshop outcomes.
Participating countries reported their FMD reporting systems and constraints for implementation with emphasis on (1) objectives of FMD reporting system (current and desired), (2) operation of the current FMD reporting system including data collection, data transfer from collection to entry, data entry, data analysis and information distribution to relevant authorities, (3) problems and constraints of current implementation including human resources, awareness of the importance of FMD, ability to recognise and report outbreaks, insufficient support to enable outbreak investigation and (4) plans for improvement of the FMD reporting system.
The Workshop discussed improved ability to control disease through access to better information, reports in format required by decision makers, faster data submission and reporting, etc., reviewed the current system operation including review of data collected, options for development (real-time on-line database, increased data submission options, risk modeling information requirements, etc.) and implications for national animal health information systems.
Dr Cameron introduced Geographical Information Systems (GIS) as a tool to manage the information on FMD in the region, together with his lecture on the theory and core principle of GIS and an exercise of epidemiological mapping to adjust a disease risk for population after combination of multiple data sources for decision makers of animal disease control and another exercise of pointing the disease incidence on the map.
The Workshop endorsed the current regional OIE FMD reporting system (coordinated through the RCU), the existing standard (outbreak-based) form for FMD reporting, and the disease summary reporting system for regional disease reporting to the OIE Regional Representation in Tokyo. The meeting also recognised the information system as one of the important elements for animal disease control for sharing information between countries in the region on the occurrence and epidemiology of outbreaks of FMD for the purpose of prevention of transboundary disease spread and harmonisation of disease control activities, and such information is required to be more detailed than standard OIE reports and quickly reported.
Continued development of the existing system was considered necessary for (1) implementation of an on-line database, (2) moving to electronic submission of disease reporting for FMD and other diseases, (3) building a capacity for editing and updating and more frequent reporting than the mandatory reporting intervals, (4) two linkages between OIE and member country web-site, where possible, (5) development of systems to allow more streamlined data transfer from their systems, (6) continuing to strengthen their capacity to investigate and report outbreaks of FMD and other OIE List A and B diseases, (7) development of spatial analysis of disease patterns at the national level, and (8) establishment of an implementation plan including technical specifications, support for countries, standard formats and linkages between OIE HQ, Regional Representation in Tokyo and SEAFMD RCU in Bangkok.