Photo of a hen against a concrete background.
RESEARCH PROJECT

MAD-tech-AMR

KEY POINTS
  • Management of animal diseases and antimicrobial use by information and communication technology to control AMR in East Africa.
Updated: July 2025

Project overview

The official name official name of the project:
Management of animal diseases and antimicrobial use by information and communication technology to control AMR in East Africa
Project start: April 2020 Ending: December 2024
Project manager: Susanna Sternberg-Lewerin
Funded by: A JPIAMR-projekt: JPIAMR project: The Swedish Research Council funds the Swedish part and Sida funds the parts in Kenya and Uganda.

Participants

Global goals

  • 2. Zero hunger
  • 3. Good health and well-being
  • 12. Responsible consumption and production

Short summary

This 3-year JPIAMR project is a collaboration between researchers at SLU, the International Livestock Institute (ILRI), University of Nairobi and Makerere University with the overall objective to provide an ICT framework for improved monitoring and control of AMU and AMR in livestock in LICs.

Background

In low-income countries (LICs), patterns of livestock diseases, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antimicrobial use (AMU) are largely unknown.

About the project

MAD-tech-AMR will develop a framework for surveillance of AMU, diseases that trigger AMU and perceived problems with AMR, for field testing in East African poultry production systems. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will be coupled with veterinary epidemiology and social science methods.

MAD-tech-AMR will assess if veterinary telemedicine coupled with ICT systems can change AMU. Baseline data on AMU practices and actors involved will be collected, and incentives and barriers to prudent AMU explored. A platform to register drug purchases and a database to monitor drug sales will be developed along with a mobile application for animal health advice and information about AMR. The ICT framework will be pilot-tested in poultry production systems in Kenya and Uganda.

Objectives

It can be expanded in the future to allow inclusion of diagnostic tools, but the initial focus will be on clinical diagnosis based on tele-consultation and evidence-based therapeutic strategies.

The project was initiated in April 2020 but due to the current pandemic, all field work has been delayed.

Participants

Besides the SLU researchers there are also participants in this project from Kenya, Nairobi and Uganda:

  • Florence Mutua, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI, Kenya)
  • Joshua Onono, University of Nairobi
  • Lawrence Mugisha från Makerere University, Uganda

Publications:

2025: Development of an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Tool for Monitoring of Antimicrobial Use, Animal Disease and Treatment Outcome in Low-Income Countries | SLU:s publikationsdatabas (SLUpub)

2025: Piloting an Information and Communication Technology Tool to Help Addressing the Challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance in Low-Income Countries | SLU:s publikationsdatabas (SLUpub)

2023: Antimicrobial Use by Peri-Urban Poultry Smallholders of Kajiado and Machakos Counties in Kenya | SLU:s publikationsdatabas (SLUpub)

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