Brigitte Weidlich
29 July 2008
THE Ministry of Agriculture last week launched a modern method of animal disease reporting, which will enable ministerial field workers and extension offers to record data of outbreaks with digital pen technology (DPT).
The digital pen has a camera, which is activated when the pen tip is pressed on a special paper.
The camera captures minute dots on the paper form and can record the contours when the pen moves over the paper.
The writings are automatically stored on a built-in memory stick in the digital pen and are automatically transferred to a cellular phone by means of Bluetooth technology.
According to Dr Francois Joubert, Deputy Director for Animal Disease Control in the Ministry, the cellphone transmits the data to a central computer, which decodes the file contents into a database within a few seconds.
"This new technology gives us data within a few minutes, especially from remote areas in our large country and we do not lose time as it does not require our veterinarians and field officers to first drive back to their regional offices and draw up a report to be sent to Windhoek," Dr Joubert explained to The Namibian on Friday.
"This new system will allow for real-time decision making for effective control of animal disease outbreaks like foot and mouth or contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP)," Dr Joubert added.
The central computer server for the animal health database in the ministerial head office is only accessible by logging in and using a password on a specially created website.
Namibia must report animal disease outbreaks to the World Organisation for Animal Health.
The new recording method with a digital pen is part of a regional project in southern Africa that is the brainchild of South African experts, and is supported by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which also provided the first DPT devices.
Veterinary staff have lready received extensive training and the pilot phase has been completed.
The new system is being rolled out in northern Namibia, with other regions to follow.
The Ministry must budget to buy about 200 such DPT devices to cover all four corners of the country.
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