Farmers, veterinarians and other animal health managers in the livestock and aquaculture sectors are currently missing information on the prevalence and burden of contagious animal diseases that are not regulated by the European Union.
Animal diseases, such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, avian infectious bronchitis, cardiomyopathy syndrome in salmonids or bovine corona virus infection — are estimated to cause 10-15% reduction in performance efficiency of livestock farming, resulting in large financial losses and lower sustainability. Furthermore, they also have an impact on animal welfare. Professionals in the livestock and aquaculture sectors are therefore in need of adequate tools to assess the risks for contagion and associated losses, and to help prioritise the appropriate control measures for these diseases.
The DECIDE project will develop data-driven decision support tools that offer:
a) robust and early signals of disease emergence and options for diagnostic confirmation;
b) options for controlling the disease along with their implications in terms of disease spread, economic burden and animal welfare.
In Norway, dairy cattle and salmon will represent our primary focus. In dairy cattle, we will tackle respiratory and gastro-intestinal syndromes. We will collaborate with farmers and industry stakeholders to understand their information needs to better control such syndromes. This will allow us to develop interactive dashboard tools that present the most adequate and relevant information. As an example, we plan to create tools that describe disease prevalence in various geographic regions and inform farmers about disease risk when purchasing animals.
For salmon, the plan is to develop an interactive dashboard for monitoring mortality in aquaculture sites. Farmers, veterinarians and other salmon industry stakeholders will be involved in developing such tool through their participation in qualitative studies with face-to-face interviews. There will also be a test of performance of a method to perform surveillance using mortality data for early warnings of disease outbreaks, e.g. salmon pancreas disease. This is a viral disease endemic to a large area of Norway, which is associated with increased mortality and reduced growth of fish.
The results from DECIDE will contribute to improved decision making related to the control of animal diseases, leading to the improvement of animal health and welfare, as well as protecting the food chain and human health.
Partners
- Utrecht University (The Netherlands)
- University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
- University of Ghent (Belgium)
- University of Liverpool (United Kingdom)
- ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
- The University of Nottingham (United Kingdom)
- Statens Veterinärmedicinska Anstalt – SVA (Sweden)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement – INRAe (France)
- Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology – IRTA (Spain)
- Scotland's Rural College – SRUC (United Kingdom)
- Animal Health Ireland – AHI (Ireland)
- Institut de l’Elevage – Idele (France)
- Innovation for Agriculture (United Kingdom)
- Royal GD (The Netherlands)
- Ausvet Europe (France)
- SLW BIOLAB (Poland)
- Lely Industries N.V. (The Netherlands)
- accelopment Schweiz AG (Switzerland)
