Fighting FMD with Spatial Intelligence

NAMIBIA IS confronting a serious foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in an area that had been recognised internationally as FMD-free.

The disease was confirmed on 23 September at a commercial farm in the Karasburg State Veterinary District in the ||Kharas region, following routine surveillance.

The World Organisation for Animal Health subsequently suspended Namibia’s FMD-free zonal status with effect from 22 September.

On 5 October, the European Union announced temporary restrictions on imports of fresh beef, sheep and goat meat, as well as certain other products from Namibia’s previously FMD-free zone.
The immediate priority is rightly disease containment.

However, this outbreak should also compel Namibia to ask a broader question: How can we use modern geospatial technology to better understand, monitor and manage the movement of disease across our landscape?

A SPATIAL PROBLEM

FMD does not spread randomly. It moves through connections between places. Animals move between farms, communal grazing areas, auctions, markets and abattoirs.

Vehicles move between farms and livestock facilities. People move between communities. Animals gather around water points, particularly when water and grazing resources become scarce.

Wildlife can also form part of the disease ecology.

Every one of these movements creates a spatial connection. When an outbreak occurs, knowing the location of the infected farm is therefore only the beginning.

We need to know where animals from that location have been, which animals subsequently moved from those locations, and which farms, markets, roads, water points and communities are connected to them.

These are precisely the kinds of questions that geospatial intelligence can help answer.

MAPPING RISK

Following the present outbreak, livestock that had moved from the infected farm to the Otjozondjupa region were traced and tested negative.

The Directorate of Veterinary Services also reported that available traceability information showed no evidence of transmission north of the veterinary cordon fence (redline).

This demonstrates the value of knowing where animals have been and of tracking their movements. The next step should be to connect livestock traceability with geospatial intelligence.

Imagine a national system where veterinary authorities can select an infected location on a digital map and immediately see relevant livestock movements, farms, communal grazing areas, auction facilities, abattoirs, roads, veterinary checkpoints, and water points associated with that location. Such a system could help identify high-risk locations and prioritise surveillance before the disease reaches them.

SMARTER ZONING

The current discussion about dividing Namibia’s FMD-free area into smaller zones makes this particularly relevant. The government is considering smaller zones as a way of limiting the impact of future outbreaks and protecting unaffected livestock areas.

Zoning is fundamentally a spatial decision and should therefore be supported by spatial evidence.

A geographic information system can help test different zoning options before implementation by identifying existing physical barriers, livestock movement corridors, animal concentrations, affected communities, and locations where additional controls could impose unnecessary economic costs.

Fences will remain important, however, the question should be where a physical barrier will provide the greatest disease-control benefit, and where surveillance, digital traceability, and movement controls can achieve the same objective more efficiently.

BUILDING DISEASE INTELLIGENCE

Namibia should consider developing a national geospatial FMD intelligence platform that integrates veterinary surveillance, livestock traceability, land information, earth observation, and animal movement data.

Veterinary expertise must remain at the centre of disease control.

A veterinary officer responding to an outbreak should have access to a current spatial picture of animal movements, surveillance results, risk areas and relevant environmental conditions.

Field teams should be able to update information directly from affected locations, while decision-makers should be able to monitor the evolving situation and direct resources to areas of greatest concern.

Such a system would provide a stronger basis for decisions about movement restrictions, zoning and surveillance.

BEYOND THE REDLINE

Namibia has invested heavily in livestock traceability, veterinary surveillance and physical barriers.

The next step should be to add a stronger layer of spatial intelligence.

We cannot simply fence our way out of FMD. We need to understand how livestock, people, wildlife, vehicles and resources interact across the landscape, and use that knowledge to anticipate risk.

If FMD moves through space, Namibia needs to become much better at understanding and managing that space by building a smarter national system that can detect connections, anticipate risks and respond before the next outbreak becomes another national economic crisis.

– Oluibukun Ajayi is an associate professor of geoinformation technology at the Namibia University of Science and Technology. He can be reached at oajayi@nust.na. These views are his own.

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