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Abstract
Controlling Livestock Disease with the Help of an Internet Map ServerTrack: Agriculture
Author(s): Susan Maroney, Jerome Freier
An Internet Map Server (IMS) is the newest tool in the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) toolbox for combating disease in animals and plants. Economic impacts of disease outbreaks in livestock animals, wildlife, and plants are significant within the United States as well as abroad, because our export trade is affected. USDA has a geographically dispersed workforce of veterinarians, epidemiologists, wildlife officers, and plant protection officers who must coordinate extensively during an outbreak, in addition to their daily work. Data on animal and plant distributions, disease locations, environmental characteristics, insect vectors, and transportation routes are among the data needed to help identify the source and predict the spread of disease. An IMS will allow the rapid dissemination of these types of data, will enable analysis at several locations using shared and local data sources, and will serve maps showing spatial and temporal aspects of the disease outbreak. Using an IMS, hypotheses on source and spread of diseases can be posited, exchanged, and tested. This speeds up response to and recovery from an outbreak. Day-to-day access to data on populations and surveillance information prepares the workforce for future response to disease outbreaks. The APHIS IMS will be applied to such diverse issues as cormorant predation on catfish farms and monthly reporting of livestock diseases by international organizations.
Susan Maroney
USDA:APHIS
555 S. Howes St.
Fort Collins, CO 80526
USA
Phone: 970-490-7894
Fax: 970-490-7999
E-mail: susan.a.maroney@usda.gov