New FAO handbook provides a roadmap for improving African swine fever management using geographic information systems technology

Many countries around the world are currently facing ongoing outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF). This viral haemorrhagic disease has a mortality rate of nearly 100 percent among both domestic and wild pigs, and at the moment no effective vaccine or treatment.

While ASF does not pose a threat to human health, it causes significant economic losses, endangering food security for many populations. The uncontrolled spread of this disease presents a major challenge to sustainable pig production globally and threatens rare endemic pig species in Southeast Asia. While many countries have employed preventative measures like the pre-emptive slaughter or culling of many animals as part of control and eradication measures, gaps remain.

The availability of geographic information systems (GIS) in the animal health domain, along with the development of spatial animal health information systems, have been emphasized as a highly suitable and versatile way for collecting, processing and presenting information related to disease management.

The reason is that they can aid in designing control and preventive approaches in the animal health research community, especially in supporting surveillance, risk assessment and disease management applications worldwide. However, the success of GIS depends on the availability and quality of baseline geographic data, as well as the accessibility of affordable information management technologies.

The widespread availability of inexpensive mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops spurred the use of data collection which in turn has transformed how many organizations and businesses conduct field surveys, organize reporting and communicate information to subordinate units and workers.

To this effect, and based on FAO’s experience in developing such systems for the management of ASF and other diseases, FAO has launched the African swine fever epidemiology and geographic information systems handbook to provide guidance, recommendations and tips on how to prepare the essential datasets and organize them into a GIS that would be epidemiologically consistent, flexible and practical ways.

Targeting animal health professionals, pig farmers, wildlife managers, hunters, GIS experts, students, and other stakeholders involved in the prevention and control of ASF worldwide, the guidelines seek to pave the way for them to create their own decision-supporting GIS to improve the management of ASF and reduce the disease burden and its negative impacts.

Additionally, the guidelines aim to create a reference document demonstrating the advantages of using GIS and explaining the necessary steps for data collection and proper organization of such information.

While it is not intended to provide a comprehensive overview of all GIS applications in ASF management, nor is it a review of spatial analysis or risk mapping in ASF research, it presents real-world examples of GIS to describe population distribution, map disease occurrence, and assess and visualize the risk of disease spread.

More so, it introduces basic concepts of risk mapping and modeling without delving deeply into technical details thereby serving as an entry-level resource, bridging ASF epidemiology GIS basics, applicable to other swine and livestock diseases.

FAO hopes that this publication, along with its other technical resources on ASF, will contribute to the development of technically sound, practical, and effective ASF control strategies and actions in countries facing this disease in both domestic pigs and wild boar.