Melkamu Tadesse Workneh and Wondu Mengesha Metekiya

Animal health information system is the systematic collection, analysis, and reporting of diseases and health-related information. Organized and efficient animal disease surveillance and monitoring systems provide timely and good-quality information for early detection, dissemination of information, and contribute to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of risk mitigation measures. Many diseases having significant economic and public health consequences are the major barriers in the international trade of livestock and animal products. International trade of livestock and their products can contribute to the introduction of transboundary diseases, the maintenance and spread of endemic diseases. Many countries are banned from exporting livestock, meat, and other products to international markets due to the presence and prevalence of different trade-limiting diseases. International animal health standards designed to facilitate safe trade in livestock and livestock products are set by OIE. Risk quantification is a method of evaluating the potential effects of the identified risk (animal disease) associated with international trade and food safety. Animal Health Information System is a basic requirement in defining the probability of occurrence of the disease risk and the magnitude of the consequences. Ethiopian animal health information system is poor, unorganized, and based on a manual system for a long period of time; covering only a few parts of the country. However, currently, the Ethiopian Animal Health Information System shows improvements in that it builds a web-based system of reporting and attempts to employ modern data collection applications, which include Disease Outbreak and Vaccination Activities Report and Animal Disease Notification and Investigation System. The weaknesses in the surveillance and monitoring systems in Ethiopia failed to detect and quantify risks and resulted in different outbreaks of infectious diseases. The country’s livestock export is very low due to stringent animal health requirements and repeated bans. Ethiopia shall establish an efficient disease surveillance and monitoring system using more advanced modern technologies to improve disease detection and avoid international trade sanctions. Furthermore, factors limiting disease surveillance and reporting should be identified, evaluated, and managed to establish an efficient animal health information system.

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