About this Research Topic

Background

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Co-operative Research Programme on Biological Resource Management for Sustainable Agricultural Systems is sponsoring the AHEAD 2017 workshop, bringing together experts from the farming and pharmaceutical industries, information and communications technology, policy, research (and more) to create a roadmap to the digital transformation of animal health surveillance. The objective of the workshop is to establish a consortium that will devise a data centric strategy and deploy an innovative pilot with the power to transform the monitoring of animal health and drug usage, focusing on food-producing animals. This digital transformation will provide a vital resource in the fight against risks to veterinary public health, such as but not limited to, antimicrobial resistance.

In many countries, policy supports the reduction of antibiotic use and a growing focus in the veterinary practice is to move away from blanket dosage of antibiotics, for example for mastitis. Significant and speedy improvements can take place, but only with coordinated actions supported by the entire value chain. Reducing the use of antibiotics is of massive societal importance, but changing on farm or veterinary methods requires thought and a user-centred approach. The most glaring and addressable challenge is the absence of near real-time data and information.

AHEAD 2017 will explore, how governments globally can benefit from increased digitisation in animal health. For effective monitoring, it is important to first understand the relevant tasks of each stakeholder in the food value chain. This workshop will openly discuss and define these tasks, identify existing challenges to completion of these tasks, and suggest the business opportunities overcoming these challenges can create. It is our intention to encourage open discussion, design and co-creation of an improved digital approach to animal health and drug usage in agriculture.

The proceedings are designed to provide a forum for the workshop registrants, and other interested parties, to contribute scientific articles and posters in this growing field. We are welcoming articles in the following broad themes:
- Drivers of digital transformation of animal disease & drug usage data
- Challenges to digital transformation of animal disease & drug usage data
- Value of & business opportunities offered by digital animal disease & drug usage data

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed and arguments employed in this research topic will be the sole responsibility of the authors and will not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its Member countries.

Keywords: Antibiotics usage, Real-time analysis, Evidence-based policy, Agri-business models, Epidemiological surveillance, Data digitalisation

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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