Expanding Ontario interactive animal pathogen dashboards

Lead Applicant: Zvonimir Poljak

Research Priority: Animal Health & Welfare

Program Type: Tier 1

Funding Cycle: 2023/2024

Research Centre: NA

Research Summary: The majority of livestock diagnostic and monitoring test data in Ontario are received and analyzed by the Animal Health Laboratory. Industry end-users expressed interest in accessing aggregated laboratory data depicting temporal and geographical trends for important animal pathogens and variants thereof. This led to a 2-year project supported by the Food from Thought program that resulted in the development of 12 dashboard stories for three major livestock groups (poultry, bovine, and swine). Herein, we aim to expand on this effort in two main directions. Firstly, to expand the development of dashboards for zoonotic pathogens with endemic presence in Ontario livestock and wildlife species including (1) influenza A virus, (2) Salmonella enterica, (3) Coxiella burnetti, (4) Leptospira spp, and (5) neurological disease of horses. Secondly, to communicate our findings through scientific publications and by organizing workshops for the end-users. Together with advanced analytics, this will provide near-real-time updates on the status of animal diseases.