IMPROVING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF RURAL VETERINARIANS THROUGH MENTORING, TARGETED EDUCATION, TELEMEDICINE, AND MONITORING OF DISEASE SYNDROMES

<b>Project Methods</b><br> To achieve the objectives of this proposal the following methods will be used:a. Stakeholder InvolvementExtension is intimately involved with livestock producers. Producer needs are assessed through one-on-one communications, county livestock committees, post-program surveys at Extension programs (including the Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course, which targets 2,000 attendees), statewide mail out surveys, and Extension's involvement in livestock organizations such as Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers and Independent Cattlemen's Association of Texas. Findings of a 2019 Texas A&M AgriLife study for development of a 10-year ranching roadmap for increasing sustainability and resiliency of ranching involved cognitive interviews with producers in all regions of the state. This grant is being submitted directly in response to stakeholder concerns about the shortage of rural veterinarians.The veterinary community, including private practitioners and the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), provided valuable input in the planning and evaluation of this proposal. One CVM faculty serves as a Co-PI, and others are collaborating.The veterinary technology program at Texas A&M Kingsville, based on their ongoing role of supporting rural veterinary practices, provided input on the perspectives of technician training and implementation.b. Coordination with Other Qualified EntitiesCoordination with animal health regulatory agencies in Texas and New Mexico is paramount to the success of this program. Each state veterinarian designates veterinary shortage areas in respective states. State regulatory veterinarians will have access to the disease surveillance database, giving them a better overview of disease patterns across their respective state. State veterinarians in Texas and New Mexico have agreed to collaborate on the project.Coordination with livestock organizations–such as Independent Cattlemen's Association of Texas, Texas Farm Bureau, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, and the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association–are essential. Some of these organizations have local chapters with numerous educational activities during the year.Coordination with Natural Resources Conservation Service and input from their county committees will focus on stewardship of the land, thereby contributing to more sustainable animal agriculture.c. Proposed Project ActivitiesDeveloping the mobile application for disease reporting. The Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Lifesciences' IT department will develop a mobile application for both iOS and Android devices to be used by veterinarians to enter their syndromic surveillance responses. The mobile application will interface with a web service that will save the responses to a Microsoft SQL database. We will also develop a web application that will allow veterinarians and researchers to view and print case logs built from the data saved in the database. The web service, web application, and database will be hosted on Division IT servers. Everything will be designed with security, accessibility, and usability in mind throughout the development process.Testing the design and application of artificial intelligence (AI) models to analyze incoming data. The importance of mathematical epidemiological models simulating animal infectious diseases has gained traction in the United States and Europe in the last decade, leading to the development of advanced platforms to provide solutions to minimize the life-threatening menace of infectious diseases to animals and humans. The quickest and most prominent step in developing an intelligent epidemiological model is likely through a hybrid knowledge- and data-driven modeling approach. Therefore, one goal of our proposal is to analyze the survey data to find methods to promote the development and/or improvement of an epidemiological decision support system using AI approaches, such as machine learning.Enrolling early-career veterinarians practicing in designated underserved areas. Respective state veterinarians are involved in the designation of underserved areas and will assist in recruitment for participation in the project. All veterinarians engaged in rural practice are encouraged to participate.Enrolling veterinary students and veterinary tech students to enter data into the disease surveillance app. Information entered into the app can be used to formulate case logs.Promoting continuing education that will include practitioners and livestock producers and will emphasize a team approach to developing comprehensive herd health plans. Educational programs will stress the benefits of telemedicine as an efficient adjunct to total herd health management within the VCPR.Developing new graduate mentorship, offering peer-to-peer communication in a chatroom format, and assisting with diagnostic decision-making, all of which are essential to the success of early-career veterinarians in rural practice.d. Techniques to Be Employed in ProjectThe employment of real-time disease monitoring is central to this project. For example, the livestock industry has labeled bovine trichomoniasis and bovine viral diarrhea as having a negative impact on livestock health, and many states have developed programs to control those diseases. Continuous monitoring of disease syndromes can provide information concerning the prevalence, distribution, and economic impact of livestock diseases, which is useful for developing and maintaining disease control programs. Monitoring submissions through AI is a novel approach that will provide a faster and less subjective approach to data analysis, thus allowing epidemiologists to deliver reports in a timely manner.Veterinary practitioners involved with the New Mexico Ag/Livestock Incident Response Team will be recruited to participate as reporting veterinarians in New Mexico. These veterinarians were involved in the Syndromic Surveillance Proof of Concept Project, under the direction of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and NM Cooperative Extension Service, which was completed previously.The concept of utilizing telemedicine will allow more efficient delivery of animal health services. Telemedicine used in the context of a valid VCPR will allow more comprehensive management of rural animal health issues, thereby lessening travel time.Early-career veterinarians will benefit from mentorship provided by experienced large animal practitioners.Allowing veterinary students and veterinary technician students to participate in disease syndrome reporting during clinical rotations and while on externships will allow them to maintain case logs in standard format and hopefully see the advantage of disease reporting.e. Plans to Communicate Results to Stakeholders and the PublicThe Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course, with an attendance in excess of 2,000 producers, is a perfect venue to broadly disseminate this information. Other venues include articles in popular press and posted on Texas A&M AgriLife Extension websites and social media. Results will be used in county and regional Extension face-to-face programming.