Mobile app to help Egyptian poultry farmers control disease

Egyptian poultry producers are set to benefit from a high-tech tool designed to help them identify early signs of avian influenza and other poultry diseases.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has launched a mobile app and web service to help poultry producers detect, monitor and become aware of outbreaks earlier.

Developed in conjunction with the Egyptian veterinary service, it’s hoped the tool will help the country’s 2.5 million small poultry farmers take immediate action during disease outbreaks.

Called the Avian Diseases, Monitoring and Awareness Network (AMAN), the tool makes use of email and mobile notifications to keep producers up-to-date about disease incursions.

As well as informing producers about localized and national outbreaks, it will send them photographs so they can identify infections on their own farms, and information on the disease so they can make informed decision about how to react.

AMAN also aims to act as an educational tool for wider poultry production issues by connecting producers across the country to share and exchange knowledge and information.
The developers hope that by encouraging producers to make use of the app, they will be able to gather information on where producers are based, strengthening their understanding of how a disease might be able to spread during an outbreak.

They also plan to map disease outbreaks, helping national veterinary services to implement surveillance programs and target disease and awareness projects across the country.

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