THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At a time when zoonotic diseases are a common occurrence in the state, a web- based spatial design support system, an innovation developed by the Digital University of Kerala (DUK), has changed the lives of livestock farmers. Earlier, when a zoonotic disease was detected in an area, the other livestock surrounding it had to be killed to control the spread of disease.
However, thanks to DUK’s innovation, the ‘Bhumika’ App, livestock inspectors could get the details of affected livestock. Also, when a disease is detected, the animal husbandry department could issue warning to other farmers to take precautionary actions.
Inspectors visiting homes in each panchayat collect farmers’ information like the ID card number provided by the animal husbandry department and the number of livestock. Through this App, the officials can get details of around 3,000 farmers around a 3-km radius of a particular livestock farm.
“If a zoonotic disease is detected, the department officials could necessitate ring vaccination,” DUK assistant professor, GeoSpatial Analytics, Dr T Radhakrishnan, told TNIE. The ‘Bhumika’ spatial design system was used to locate livestock farmers who fell victim to the Chooralmala and Mundakkai landslides in Wayanad.
The DUK is now trying to provide a Temperature Humidity Index (THI) of each farm for the farmers through App. As per the THI parameter, if the THI index is above 88% on a farm the animals could develop stress and it reaches 90%, death could happen.
“To know the real-time THI data, the farmers would have to install sensors. And an alert will go to the farmer’s mobile phone if THI is above normal rate,” Radhakrishnan said.