Mobile Wireless and Remote Diagnostic Computer Applications and Animal Health Briefing Capability in Support of Grazing Livestock Health

The goal of this project is to design and develop mobile wireless and remote access to diagnostic information systems to assist food animal practitioners in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in ruminants, including foreign animal diseases (FAD's). Objectives - 1. Research the availability of hand-held computing devices for use by food animal veterinarians in conjuntion with their state veterinary diagnostic laboratories 2. Design and develop software and hardware platform to enable integration and remote and wireless access to a Laboratory Information Management Systetm (LIMS) 3. Design and develop a differential diagnosis system for ruminants that assists food animal veterinarians in selecting appropriate diagnostic tests for rule-in/rule-out of disease 4. Conduct a field test of remote and wireless veterinary diagnostic laboratory access systems to evaluate the effectiveness of the system 5. Establish an animal health briefing capability at the diagnostic laboratory to keep state, federal, and practicing veterinarians abreast of disease trends and ongoing outbreaks. The diagnostic computing applications should improve practitioner's ability to diagnose diseases in ruminants by providing assistance with differentials, suggested diagnostic tests, and related disease trends in their practice region. Through the state reportable disease system and other means of information dissemination, this wil improve animal health situational awareness for state and federal veterinarians, epidemiologists, and farmers. The system could become a model for the U.S. and could be extended to include other food animal species.