title: Accessible and inexpensive tools for global HPAI surveillance: A mobile-phone based system.
abstract: Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) disproportionately impacts poor livestock keepers in southern countries. Although the estimated cost of the disease in the billions, response to the epidemic remains fragmented and information channels slow. Given the continuing threat of outbreaks, and what appears to be the politicisation of outbreak reporting, new tools are needed to enforce transparency in stakeholder communication. In response to this need, we created a mobile-phone based surveillance system to aid critical information transfer among policy makers, practitioners and the poor themselves. The tool operates at the local, national and global levels and further links decision-makers to international databases.
authors.affiliation: The Livestock Development Group, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Road, PO Box 237, Reading RG6 6AT, UK.
authors.forename: Yibo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Heffernan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D000835:Animals, Wild; D001717:Birds; D040421:Cell Phone / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000662:veterinary; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D053124:Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype; D005585:Influenza in Birds / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011200:Poultry; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance / Q000662:veterinary*