Building the intervention around supportive legal and policy frameworks
Enhancing collaboration between various projects to increase impact at scale
Financial support to transition to flood-based agriculture
Technology
The PODD Platform is the disease surveillance software powering PODD including a mobile app, outbreak manager, and API.
Disease data is collected into decentralized repositories owned and managed by local health and government officials via the PODD Manager. They are able to run reports and analyze the real-time data coming in from farms. When enough cases of sick animals with similar characteristics are reported within a defined radius, PODD Manager triggers the following actions:
Automated alerts are sent to local health authorities who manage the reported area.
Preliminary guidance is automatically delivered to the volunteer, instructing them to quarantine the animal and disinfect the surrounding areas.
The local officials will then communicate directly with the livestock owner via a chat feature within PODD Manager and dispatch a local response team, if necessary.
Local responders collect lab samples and work with community members on preventative or outbreak control measures.
All activity tracking and case outcomes are recorded in PODD Manager for historical case reporting.
What makes the PODD technology innovative is that it brings the public back into public health. PODD is open source — 100% free to copy & use and globally accessible to anyone with an internet connection.
The PODD app is easy to use even for rural users who have never owned a mobile phone, however some basic training on digital literacy, such as how to take clear photos, is still recommended.
The participation of “disease detectives” powers digital disease surveillance systems for local governments by better equipping them with relevant and timely data. Local health authorities can monitor the status of sick animals in real-time from their offices as farmers take pictures and upload them to the PODD system.
Without government buy-in, data is just unactionable information. Indeed, national governments benefit as PODD adds surveillance capacities previously unavailable to them. Ministries of agriculture and public health have access to granular local data, which helps to improve understanding of disease trends, burden of disease, and inform allocation of (sometimes scarce) national resources for disease control.
Local governments also report feeling empowered to solve problems themselves, which makes them more engaged in finding solutions.
In the first 3 months after launching PODD, more abnormal health events were reported than the entire previous year – which means that most animal illnesses and deaths were never reported in previous years.
Since 2014, PODD has been actively detecting abnormal health events and preventing outbreaks in Thailand with incredible support from both local governments and local communities. While PODD relies on software, the success of the project largely depends on the real-time data coming from our disease detectives in the field. These livestock owners are incentivized to provide health officials with direct disease data, since their own livelihood depends on the health of their animals.
Community Members have a vested interest in reporting suspected illness on PODD, knowing it comes with expert veterinarian care for their animals—often provided even with false alarms. For livestock owners, this means improved animal health and a lessened risk of disease transmission. And if the case turns out to be a highly probable outbreak, then local health officials will quarantine the sick animals, thus saving the rest of the livestock and possibly their own families’ lives.
The local communities who have PODD tend to trust their government more readily, as the open communication engenders mutual understanding and shared incentives of keeping communities safe.
Local communities also trust that their government will respond to problems quicker because the PODD system empowers them to signal to their government when there’s a problem to address.
Community engagement has increased as communities now have a tool they use to take action themselves in order to prevent outbreaks.
Volunteers’ performance with the PODD system over time requires firm commitment from local leadership, and periodic training and events to keep them engaged with the project.
The majority of backyard farmed animals live outside the capabilities of formal agricultural surveillance.
Many local people were still consuming or selling chickens, cows, pigs, and other animals that died of unknown causes – some of which could have died from avian influenza, foot and mouth disease, african swine fever, or other deadly diseases.
Save Vietnam’s Wildlife aims to ensure that our rescue centre serves as a role model for other centres within Vietnam in wildlife rescue management and welfare standards. We lead the way for other organisations across Vietnam and overseas in pangolin rehabilitation by demonstrating the highest animal care standards and providing other facilities with technical advice and training. We have used the development of SVW and our improved outreach capabilities to directly work with other rescue centres in Vietnam. SVW has provided expertise, staff training, and logistical and financial support to help improve animal welfare standards and the capacity of the keepers in several government rescue centres in Vietnam. We have also employed dedicated animal keepers and veterinary staff and improved animal husbandry practices and quarantine procedures.
A professional captive breeding team with high capacity
Write husbandry guidelines, and protocols to share with other organisations so that they could use our guidelines, and protocols to improve their quality; training is given to specific organisation’s need
Cooperation between rescue centres
It is better to have face-to-face instructions at rescue centres than online support.
It is needed to establish an association of wildlife rescue centres to coordinate rescue operations across the country
Our aim is that all rescued, rehabilitated and captive-born carnivores and pangolins are released back to the wild to support the conservation of wild populations, more than 1200 animals were released in the program in 7 years. Before releasing, the suitability of the release locations is assessed based on habitat conditions, evidence of wild populations and hunting pressures are all considered to ensure the best chance of survival for the released animals. We continually monitor these releases and their impacts on wild populations, to ensure that these releases will help support the recovery of threatened wildlife species
Ensuring the animals meet required health standards before release
Carrying out assessments to ensure the habitat is suitable for the released animals
Coordinating with the research team to monitor the post-release animals
Creating and following release protocols
Mobilising resources to support rescue, rehabilitation and post-release monitoring
It is not easy to find suitable habitats for some species to rehabilitate. Protected areas are often selected to release animals. It would be useful to have a strong research team to review literature on species distribution history.
It í important to consider releasing animals in a cost-effective way e.g., distance from rescue centres to the release site
It is advised to release animals to semi-wild areas before their eventual release into the wild could secure their survival.
Since it is not easy to monitor animals in the forests of Viet Nam, different new tracking methods using advanced technology techniques are preferred e.g., using drones and thermal cameras
From the conception of the PREDICT project through to today’s day-to-day laboratory management, partners working effectively across sectors has been an essential building block. The PREDICT project brought conservation and health nonprofits and Malaysian federal and local government departments together to collaborate on zoonotic disease surveillance. Over the last 10 years the WHGFL has been able to expand into new surveillance, genetic, and forensic research as capacity is built through open and productive collaboration. The Sabah Wildlife Department has scaled up their involvement increasing their funding for the WHGFL each year and leading the management committee. The management committee ensures the multiple projects utilizing the small laboratory are coordinated and organized, especially as new projects come on board and the scope of work expands.
A One Health approach was employed at every step, ensuring priorities of different sectors were heard and respected. Siloed sectors were brought together to meet a shared goal of conservation through zoonotic disease screenings that promoted human and wildlife health. By highlighting the interconnection of human, animal, and environmental health, collaboration, instead of competition, was emphasized and promoted. Wildlife disease screening results provided Sabah State Health Department with actionable data to inform risk mitigation policies at the state level.
Multiple partners were involved with the renovation of an empty building to create a laboratory meeting international biosafety and biosecurity standards, and while the initial investment was from outside sources, in recent years local leadership has taken on a larger role in management. The success of the PREDICT project demonstrated the importance of the laboratory to local and global research efforts, earning a larger investment, both financial and bandwidth-wise, from local leaders. This has allowed budding partnerships to further develop and deepen over time.
When the PREDICT project began working in Sabah there was no laboratory dedicated to wildlife sample testing that met the necessary standards for biosafety. The financial and logistical hurdles of building the necessary infrastructure from the ground up were too high for this project, making a brand-new lab not an option. Instead, SWD and CM identified an existing empty building belonging to SWD in Sabah and renovated it to meet international laboratory standards, as detailed in the Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories Guidelines (6th Ed.) for Biosafety Containment Level 2 requirements, to establish the WHGFL. These upgrades saved the project time and money, allowing samples to safely remain in Sabah for virus screening and creating a state-of-the-art lab for SWD and DGFC to pursue genetic and forensic research.
While the existence of current physical infrastructure that can be built upon is the most important factor, support from the Sabah state government, Sabah Wildlife Department and Dr Stuart D. Blacksell from MORU enabled the necessary changes to be carried out.
As vital as a biosafe and bio-secured laboratory is for any area aiming to do disease screenings, most locations do not have the space, capacity, or resources to build the required infrastructure from the ground up. While facing this logistical and financial challenge, the project team found innovative solutions using the resources currently available in-country and low-cost sustainable solutions to create this state-of the art facility. When designing a laboratory, it is important to consider exactly what samples, activities and processes will be conducted in the lab, conduct a full risk, and gap assessment and design a facility to manage these risks and hazards tailored to your specific needs.
