Presented by George Wamwere-Njoroge, Benson Long’or, Absolomon Kihara and Bernard Bett at the ILRI Open Access Week Workshop, Nairobi, 23-25 October 2019

1. Mobile phone-based syndromic surveillance system
for early detection and control of livestock diseases
George Wamwere-Njoroge1, Benson Long’or2, Absolomon Kihara3, Bernard Bett1
1. International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi Kenya
2. Directorate of Veterinary Services, Lodwar, Kenya
3. Badili Innovations Limited, Nairobi, Kenya
ILRI Open Access Week, Nairobi, 23-25 October 2019

2. Introduction
• Delivery of animal health services
constrained by technical and
institutional barriers
• Long Kenyan international border
• Exploiting existing technologies –
smart phone, internet etc. to:
o bridge existing gaps on service delivery
o engage multiple actors – private sector
o reduce turn-around time between data
analysis and response
• Mobile phone-based syndromic
surveillance system introduced in
northern Kenya (Figure 1) Figure 1. Map of Kenya highlighting counties
involved in the study

3. Sub-county Vet
Department
Community Disease Reporter
e-Surveillance network
National DVS
County DVS
•Types of drugs sold
•Reported syndromes
Agrovets Stores
Abattoirs
•No. slaughtered/day
•Ante-mortem/PM lesions
&parasites
•Syndromes/rumours
•Disease outbreaks
Livestock owner
Figure 2. Locations of trained CDRs
Livestock markets
•Syndromes
•Disease outbreaks
•Movement patterns

4. Surveillance data being collected

5. Notifications and Feedback
Immediate feedback to the CDRs on
receipt of report (via SMS)
Weekly reminders to Sub-County
VOs to follow up with CDRs (via SMS)
Weekly reports to CDVS and SCVOs
(via SMS and Email)

6. Response
 The County Vet Department uses the data to
distribute drugs and vaccines
NGOs have also utilized the same data for
veterinary interventions

7. Achievements so far
Improved awareness of the types of
syndromes and prevalent diseases
Enhanced involvement of private service
providers in disease surveillance
Informed investigations/responses especially
in Turkana County, Kenya
Enhanced resource mobilization
especially with vet NGOs who supported
staff trainings and disease responses)

8. Challenges
 Few Community disease reporters and
veterinary personnel
 inadequate veterinary extension
services
 Air time to sustain information flow
 Poor mobile phone network coverage
 How to sustainable incentivize data
collectors/reporters
 especially sustaining costs of airtime

9. Areas to be improved
Integrate the ILRI supported County e-Surveillance
system with national surveillance system at the
Directorate of Veterinary Services
More training for epidemiologists on data
management/analysis and triangulation of information
Pilot incentives that promote reporting by the private
sector actors
e.g. automated system for capturing drugs sales
Policy dialogue on financing and utilization of the
system in disease control

10. Next Frontier
For effectiveness and efficiency in communication
 Project working with Safaricom limited and counties to
make use of Toll-Free Line operated
within a Closed User Group (CUG)
 CUG members to communicate amongst themselves at
no cost,
 CUG package have a feedback loop where customized
messages will be sent to the CDRs/CUG participants.
 Tol-Free Line linked to a line owned by County
Government, hence Government to pay for the costs.

11. Turkana e-Surveillance Platform
turkanavet.or.ke

12. Acknowledgements
• Directorate of Veterinary Services - Kenya
• County Directors of Veterinary Services
• CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for
Nutrition and Health led by IFPRI
• Accelerated Value Chain Development project
(AVCD), funded by FtF, USAID

13. better lives through livestock
ilri.org