Background. To improve early detection of emerging infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), many of them zoonotic, numerous electronic animal disease-reporting systems have been piloted but not implemented because of cost, lack of user friendliness, and data insecurity. In Kenya, we developed and rolled out an open-source mobile phone-based domestic and wild animal disease reporting system and collected data over two years to demonstrate its robustness and ability to track disease trends. Methods. The Kenya Animal Biosurveillance System (KABS) application was built on the Java® platform, freely downloadable for android compatible mobile phones, and supported by web-based account management, form editing and data monitoring. The application was integrated into the surveillance systems of Kenya’s domestic and wild animal sectors by adopting their existing data collection tools, and targeting disease syndromes prioritized by national, regional and international animal and human health agencies. Smartphone-owning government and private domestic and wild animal health officers were recruited and trained on the application, and reports received and analyzed by Kenya Directorate of Veterinary Services. The KABS application performed automatic basic analyses (frequencies, spatial distribution), which were immediately relayed to reporting officers as feedback. Results. Over 95% of trained domestic animal officers downloaded the application, and >72% of them started reporting using the application within three months. Introduction of the application resulted in 2- to 10-fold increase in number of disease reports when compared the previous year (p<0.05), and reports were more spatially distributed. Among domestic animals, food animals (cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and chicken) accounted for >90% of the reports, with respiratory, gastrointestinal and skin diseases constituting >85% of the reports. Herbivore wildlife (zebra, buffalo, elephant, giraffe, antelopes) accounted for >60% of the wildlife disease reports, followed by carnivores (lions, cheetah, hyenas, jackals, and wild dogs). Deaths, traumatic injuries, and skin diseases were most reported in wildlife. Conclusions. This open-source system was user friendly and secure, ideal for rolling out in other countries in SSA to improve disease reporting and enhance preparedness for epidemics of zoonotic diseases.

中文翻译：

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肯尼亚推出移动电话报告系统后，实时报告家庭和野生动物疾病

背景。为了改善对撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）新兴传染病的早期发现，其中许多是人畜共患疾病，已经试行了许多电子动物疾病报告系统，但由于成本高，缺乏用户友好性和数据不安全而未能实施。在肯尼亚，我们开发并推出了基于开放源代码移动电话的家庭和野生动物疾病报告系统，并在两年内收集了数据，以证明其鲁棒性和跟踪疾病趋势的能力。方法。肯尼亚动物生物监测系统（KABS）应用程序建立在Java®平台上，可免费下载以用于与Android兼容的手机，并得到基于Web的帐户管理，表单编辑和数据监视的支持。通过采用现有的数据收集工具，并针对国家，区域和国际动物及人类健康机构确定的疾病综合症，将该应用程序集成到肯尼亚家畜和野生动物部门的监测系统中。招募了拥有智能手机的政府以及私人和家养和野生动物保健官员，并对它们进行了培训，肯尼亚兽医服务局接收并分析了报告。KABS应用程序执行了自动的基本分析（频率，空间分布），并立即将其转发给报告人员以作为反馈。结果。超过95％的训练有素的家畜管理人员下载了该应用程序，其中超过72％的人在三个月内开始使用该应用程序进行报告。与上一年相比，引入该应用程序导致疾病报告的数量增加了2到10倍（p <0.05），并且报告在空间上的分布更为分散。在家畜中，食用动物（牛，绵羊，山羊，骆驼和鸡）占报告的> 90％，其中呼吸道，胃肠道和皮肤病占报告的> 85％。食草动物野生动物（斑马，水牛，大象，长颈鹿，羚羊）占野生动物疾病报告的60％以上，其次是肉食动物（狮子，猎豹，鬣狗，狐狼和野狗）。在野生动植物中死亡，外伤和皮肤疾病的报道最多。结论。这个开源系统是用户友好和安全的，