The Federal Government, in collaboration with the Oyo State government has inaugurated a new software application, National Animal Disease Information System (NADIS) Mobile Application to track and report zoonotic diseases outbreak in Oyo State.
This is contained in a statement issued by the Co-ordinating Director, Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Gideon Alade, on Wednesday.
NADIS is a platform for animal health workers to report cases of zoonotic disease outbreak in their environment.
However, with recent intervention from the World Bank, the mobile application NADIS-Mobile was launched, on Tuesday, to accurately report zoonotic disease outbreaks by animal health workers.
The state government organised a training for private and public animal health workers at the Conference Room of the state Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Lead facilitator, Dr. Olaseju Taiwo, a vet and pest control expert from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, explained that the new software has two applications.
The two applications, he said, are the NADIS-mobile which is for collection of data from the field, and NADIS-admin for viewing reported diseases and for analysis.
According to him, the application can be downloaded on Play Store as VETSARK or via mobile browsers by typing nadis.mobile.ng.
Dr Olaseju said the app will enable veterinary outfits, both public and private or the university sectors to accurately report cases of zoonotic disease outbreak near them, which will be followed by prompt intervention from government at all levels.
“By doing so, disease outbreaks can easily be curbed before causing much damage,” he said.
He said the purpose of the training session was to teach private and public vets on how to use the National Animal Disease Information System (NADIS), and also to improve and expand their surveillance points.
In his presentation, Head, State Disease Reporting Records Collation and Epidemiology Unit, Dr. Kareem Akeem, stated that zoonotic disease reporting must be systematic and timely.
He said it is a form of communication about diseases affecting animals which involves the collection and submission of data on disease cases to the appropriate authorities responsible for surveillance and control.
Dr. Akeem stressed that laboratories, livestock producers, research institutions, animal owners and government agencies are key entities that play a role in identifying and reporting disease cases.
In his opening remarks, the Co-ordinating Director, Oyo State Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Opawusi Olalekan, said the purpose of the training is to equip animal health workers with the needed knowledge on zoonotic disease reporting.
He said the training will help them on how to improve their practice at their various veterinary outfits for the good of the public.
Welcoming participants to the training session, the state Director of Veterinary Services, Dr. (Mrs.) L.S. Azeez, said the training was timely considering the recent outbreak of deadly zoonotic diseases such as Anthrax, that ravage few African countries, killing animals and people.
She added that the training will assist the state government to have timely and accurate disease reporting format and also to curb and prevent outbreak of disease.
Dr. Azeez therefore called on the private veterinary outfits to give their maximum cooperation to the government officers in collation of zoonotic diseases reports throughout the state.
The training was attended by veterinary doctors from the private, public, and university sectors, alongside all the Directors of Agriculture from the 33 local government areas of the state.
