Livestock Disease Evidence in Africa and South Asia

SEBI-Livestock is building an evidence base for 12 livestock diseases and disease groups in Africa and South Asia. To do this, we will be using rigorous evidence synthesis methodologies to create a series of systematic maps and synthesise data from published and grey literature. This evidence synthesis will ensure the already existing data in literature and other sources is collated to provide insights. This will provide decision makers and other stakeholders with a valuable reference that can help inform impactful decisions and future research directions.   

Diseases we currently plan on building the evidence base for: 

• Brucellosis
• Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia
• Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia  
• East Coast fever
• Foot and mouth disease
• Lumpy skin disease 
• Newcastle disease  
• Peste des petits ruminants
• Rift Valley fever 
• Sheep and goat pox  
• Common ectoparasites 
• Common endoparasites

Why are we doing this?

We are undertaking this initiative to gain up to date epidemiologic parameters to input into our own animal health models, and to publish the findings of our evidence synthesis so that they will be publicly available for whoever may need to use them, including decision-makers and many other stakeholders.  As well as an anticipated series of published systematic maps presenting the findings, we intend to create a dashboard interface on livestockdata.org, so the data is available for all in a user-friendly format. 

What is already known?

In ‘building’ an evidence base, we acknowledge that we are building on already existing, valuable work.  With our evidence synthesis initiative, we are not seeking to redo any work that has been done.  We know that there are several groups developing livestock disease impact models; we will not be publishing models.  Rather, our work will provide data that others can then use to input into their models.  Therefore, our work can be complementary to that which is being done in the modelling space.  We are very mindful of connecting with other groups who are working in this area, and we certainly want to avoid duplication of efforts.  We hope by publicising this initiative in this consultation, we can be very transparent in our aims. 

Our Approach

Figure 1 displays the sequential steps of the initiative to build the evidence base.  

 

Consultation campaign

We created an outreach campaign to consult with experts interested in shaping our approaches – thank you for to our 234 respondents!  We began with an exciting kick-off workshop that launched our three-week collaborative consultation period (30 June – 19 July).  Expert consultations were then conducted on our approaches and methodologies, to ensure that our approaches are as contextually relevant to as many decision makers and stakeholders as possible.  Also, since this initiative has such an international scope, consultations allowed us to facilitate international co-creation of project approaches.

The consultation, including the workshop, was reviewed and approved by the Human Ethical Review Committee at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh (HERC_2025-058). 

Online discussions

Together with the Livestock Data for Decisions Network (LD4D) we hosted three weeks of consultation discussions, where participants were invited to the LD4D engagement platform, powered by Open Social, and where they contributed expertise and evidence while learning from others’ insights.  The discussion focused on our approaches, data and evidence needs, and identification of data sources. 

The consultation was designed as an asynchronous process, meaning participants could contribute when it was convenient, across different time zones and schedules.  The process was structured into three focused weeks, each building on the previous one.  Participant contribution was entirely voluntary and designed to be flexible for individual schedules.  Each of the three weeks built towards a more comprehensive evidence base that truly reflects the collective knowledge of the expert community.  Participants directly influenced how we approach livestock disease evidence synthesis across Africa and South Asia. 

Week 1 (June 30-July 6) – Community Building & Resource Identification:

This first week was all about getting to know each other and crowdsourcing information resources.  Participants were asked to help identify additional databases we should consider using; important journals or publications specific to disease expertise that might not be captured by standard databases; any additional sources in languages other than English that could fill critical gaps.

Week 2 (July 7-July 13) – Deep Dive into Evidence Needs:

Week 2 moved into disease-specific discussions (12 disease-specific online discussion ‘rooms’).  Participants could join any rooms based on their expertise, to discuss feedback on various prompts; which epidemiological parameters would be most valuable to update through this project; what additional data beyond epidemiological parameters are needed, such as impacts on gender, specific communities, or environmental factors; evidence gaps encountered that this synthesis could help address; impacts on specific communities that our current approach might not take into account.

Week 3 (July 14-July 19) – Protocol Refinement:

Finally, week 3 focused on refining our search protocols.  This is where detailed expertise really shaped our methodology.  Experts were invited to share key articles that our search terms must capture; suggest additional disease terms for our search protocols; and for those interested in diving deeper, review the full draft protocols.