To date 90 (about 50 percent) districts are using EMA-i and the application has significantly increased the number of reports received from field officers

Morogoro – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) holds five-days training workshop. The first two days were dedicated to the refresher training for 9 officers from the veterinary services based at the central and zonal levels from Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar. The training was focused on the use of the Event Mobile Application (EMA-i) and EMPRES-i, the Excel data analysis and mapping with the use of EMPRES-i and the establishment of a weekly bulletin with the use of the excel automated data analysis tool and facilitated virually by FAO headquarters through zoom session. The additional three days were dedicated to the training of 25 additional districts veterinary officers from 16 regions of Tanzania mainland. The training of the new districts veterinary officers were conducted by national trainers with  on site support from Tanzania FAO’s Emergency Center for Transboundary Diseases (ECTAD) and virtually by the FAO headquarthers team.

The workshop was organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries (MoLF) from 12-16 October in Morogoro, within the framework of the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) programme funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  MoLF’s Head of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Mr. Baltazary Kibola, stated during the opening ceremony that “the ICT is the key to improvement of animal disease surveillance and reporting. Introduction of EAM-i have simplified and enhanced surveillance and early warning of animal disease outbreaks in Tanzania. Thanks to FAO for facilitating the rollout of the technology”.

FAO ECTAD representative, Dr. Niwael MtuiMalamsha in her turn, acknowledged the progress made by the country in disease surveillance and reporting after introduction of EMA-i. She stated that “quality disease information and timely reporting is crucial in understanding disease situation, support decision-making, prevent and respond quickly to disease outbreaks.” 

Following the successful results of the three pilot phases carried out since 2017 and the improvement observed in surveillance data collection and real-time reporting, FAO, in collaboration with the MoLF conducted another phase of training in October 2018 to additional 50 districts followed by another training in November 2019 and rolled out EMA-i to additional 20 districts including wildlife officers. To date 90 (about 50 percent) districts are using EMA-i and the application has significantly increased the number of reports received from field officers. However, despite the observed improvement there is still a need to expand coverage to ensure that more that 80 percent of districts are reporting using digital technologies in accordance with the planned targets for the country. This requires an operationalisation that represents more trainers and trainees capacitated in the use of the EMA-i tool at the national level and a significant strengthening of the national veterinary service in timely early warning and rapid response.

EMA-i improves animal diseases surveillance and real-time reporting

Using smartphones, georeferenced information on animal diseases is collected from the field and entered into the app. This generates a report that is sent in real time to FAO’s Global Animal Disease Information System (EMPRES-i) database, where the information is safely stored for animal disease mobile reporting tool available in three languages. Field data feed into a global platform (EMPRES-i) for analysis and real time mapping of the disease situation. country users. The reports are also accessible through a mapping component of EMA-i, which allows users to visualize the location and analyse the epidemiological data of a disease event from the field.

In Tanzania, rapid notification of animal diseases in the field is a major challenge due to weak infrastructure and lack of adequate human resource. To ensure a timely response, EMA-i technology has been adopted in the country from 2017 in 90 districts with the participation of 20 trainees from the Veterinary Service Directorate, which has represented a significant reinforcement of the National epidemio-surveillance network. EMA-i set up was supported by FAO Tanzania with 110 smartphones and eleven desktop computers including internet connectivity for three months to implement the pilot phase of the EMA-i.

From its implementation, a total of 1 199[1] disease events have been reported by EMA-i in a 12 month period by the 20 districts (Dec 2017 – Nov 2018), which represents about four (4) times more the number reported the year before 283 countrywide (Dec 2016 – Nov 2017). FAO ensures efficient epidemio-surveillance system for animal diseases, which has been beneficial to the national veterinary services, ensuring transmission of health information from field to central level in real time.

By building surveillance and early warning capacities and improving communication between stakeholders, EMA-i strengthens early warning of animal disease occurrence at national, regional and

global levels. First tested and implemented in Uganda in 2013, Tanzania was one of the first three countries in which EMA-i has been implemented in 2017, together with Mali in 2016.

For further information, please contact:

Fasina Folorunso
FAO ECTAD COUNTRY TEAM LEADER
FAO Tanzania

Asma Saidouni
Veterinary Epidemiologist
FAO Headquarters, Rome

Yanira Santana
Outreach and Reporting Officer
FAO ECTAD WCA