Engaging farmers in surveillanceEngaging farmers in surveillance

Angus CameronAusVet Animal Health ServicesAngus CameronAusVet Animal Health Services

Purposes of surveillance

• Disease present– Occurrence and distribution– Case finding

• Disease absent– Demonstration of freedom– Early detection

Quality standards

• Freedom– Surveillance sensitivity or P(free)

• Occurrence– Precision and bias

• Case finding– Detection proportion

• Early detection– Time to detect, limit of spread

Farmer reporting

• Requirements for early detection and case finding:– Complete coverage of the population– Continuous surveillance

• Conclusion– Farmer reporting is the only practical and

affordable approach • Not just another component • Must be the core of almost all surveillance systems

Common problems with farmer reporting systems

• Under-reporting– Actively hiding disease– Lack of trust

• Slow• Under-reporting• Aggregated data

– Of little use for analysis• Little or no feedback to data providers

Understanding the problems

• Too many farmers and fish, not enough staff– Hierarchical reporting system– Progressive summarisation of data

• Focus on priority diseases– Less attention to routine disease– Draconian response to priority diseases– Weakens relationship, undermines trust

Tackling the problems

• Philosophy• Technical solutions

Philosophical foundation

• Farmers and field staff are key decision-makers

• Positive cost-benefit balance for all data providers

• Not focused on priority disease• Bottom-up design

Technical foundation

• Direct electronic data submission• Atomic data submission• Powerful on-line database• Automated data quality checking• Automated immediate feedback• Automated analysis and reporting• Multi-portal • Performance/price balance

Results – disease reports

Abattoir reporting

SMS Received per hour

SMS sent per week

Key findings

• 30-fold increase in disease reporting– Including priority diseases

• Sustainable– No drop-off in use after one year

• Farmer trust– Farmers report better service and healthier

animals

More information

• YouTube– Search for

• iSIKHNAS - user testimonies• iSIKHNAS - how the system works

• Web– http://wiki.isikhnas.com

• Full system documentation• Indonesian and English

Acknowledgements

• Indonesian funding– DGLAHS

• Team members– M Syibli– Sigit Nurtanto– S Yulianti– CK Yohana– Priyono– RN Muhammad– Soegiarto– and many more…

• Australian funding– AusAID– Department of

Agriculture• Team members

– Jonathan Happold– Albertus Muljono– Catriona Mackenzie– and many more…

Thank you