there for climate.

Putting Disease Detection into the Hands of Cameroon Poultry Farmers

Many thanks for your support, which meant we were able to complete the project successfully.

project summaryHenry and his team want to put an end to the death of chickens on farms in Cameroon with their innovative idea. An app is supposed to provide the solution, and they need your support to develop it optimally. Donate now CHF 100.

Background

Early morning on May 15th, 2015, Henry, a young small-scale poultry farmer from Buea Cameroon, walked into his farm to discover 440 of his chickens were dead. As devastating and unbearable as it seems, many poultry farmers in Africa go through this ordeal daily.
Global population growth is driving up demand for animal protein, which puts poultry farmers under pressure to increase production. However, disease outbreaks still devastate the economies of millions of farmers worldwide —small flack owners in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are especially affected which are mostly women and youth. Report from FAO confirms the overall worldwide poultry slowdown is due to animal diseases and lack of better technology to improve productivity sustainably.
Henry shut down his poultry farm and relocated to another city in search of greener pastures due to the unbearable losses He decided to invest in animal feed productions. After three years of success, his local university now sends interns to his firm for professional training. Part of their job is to survey all the 126 farmers they sell animal feed to. 85% of these farmers’ main worries were increasing chicken mortalities.
Moved by the farmers’ plights and deeply touched due to his own experience, he collaborated with various poultry industry stakeholders and tech-savvies to develop a solution. Ultimately, when farmers lose fewer birds to diseases, they will make more money to support their businesses and families.

Idea

Our team came to the conclusion that millions of poultry farmers in Cameroon and worldwide use smartphones. If we could put diagnostic +Tele-Veterinary services on them, we can help save their animals from dying, which can then in turn be used as food for the world market.
The access to laboratories necessary for poultry farmers to have feces specimen examined is limited in their communities and having traditional veterinary professionals visit the farm is laborious, time-consuming, and expensive. In some instances, veterinarians have accidentally carried diseases from one farm to another because they didn’t practice adequate biosecurity measures.
We developed the «SaveTheChicken» App. An AI Poultry Farm Management Software App that helps farmers instantly detect diseases, connects them with vets to diagnose and treat animal illness. To get a quick diagnosis, a farmer takes a photo of the chicken or its feces, our software will recognize the disease, confirmed by a certified Veterinarian before the diagnosis goes back to the farmer in real-time. Revealing diseases that are hidden in an early stage gives the farmer enough time to react and prevent billions of chickens from dying.
Farmers will be able to make a diagnosis by themselves on their mobile phones, receive confirmation and prescriptions from a veterinary in real-time or engage with a veterinarian via video call. They can track their operations and they have direct market access for their products which increases their livelihoods and revenue and boosts their production scaling confidence.

Implementation

We need your help to finance the research on highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu and develop a model to early predict the virus.
The project will involve fieldwork as we will go to four intensive farming regions in Cameroon to collect physical samples and gather information to develop the model. We are looking to raise CHF 10'000. This sum will help us travel to remote villages and stay in the farmhouse to collect these data which is vital for developing a solution.
With the increased international attention on livestock farming given the rise of COVID19 and other zoonotic diseases, there will be greater importance of putting diagnostic tools into the hands of farmers, especially as we work to create a more traceable and transparent food system.
We do a lot of the work ourselves, but still, need the support of professionals for the implementation. With your donations, you help to further increase poultry farm animal welfare.

Initiators

The Poultry Farmers management team is made up of four equal members with backgrounds in veterinary epidemiology, veterinary medicine, poultry farming, animal nutrition, and software development and extensive industry experience of a minimum of 10 years each and working together since the foundation in 2018.
We are very conscious, experienced, dynamic, and committed minds of various backgrounds who support each other with effective communication while focusing on our goals and results. Our attitude has always been collaboration with openness; alone we can do so little but together we can do so much for our society. Our mindset is fixed on the impact we want to bring to our beloved industry.
This project can also be over funded, it could be used to fund impromptu visits to some other rural communities to hold meetings and engage farmers. Every franc is used carefully and always in the interest of the farmer's animals. Please contact me if you have any questions or suggestions about the project. Thank you very much for your support!
Henry Ngale Foretia, info@pfms.cm

A huge and warm thank you to you!

07/04/2022

Thank you very much for your support. Thanks to you, the first major milestone has been reached and the project enters the next phase.

Poultry diseases, especially highly pathogenic avian influenza provokes high flock mortalities and shatter the livelihood of small and medium poultry farmers. It but obvious we need better technology to improve productivity sustainably.

We want to perform detailed research on highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu in chickens, and develop a model to early predict the virus. This project will involve analyzing data from farms that, were affected in the past, including physical samples collected to develop the model for early detection and prevention in the future.

We are also happy to share this good news with you. We secured a partnership with our local university department of veterinary medicine. They will keep Ph.D. students in three intensive farming regions in Cameroon to collect physical samples that we will analyze to develop a model with the help of Artificial intelligence.

With the increased international attention on livestock farming, given the rise of COVID-19 and other zoonotic diseases. It will be of greater importance to early detect this highly pathogenic virus that is causing economic and social hardship to both commercial and smallholder farmers worldwide, especially now as we work to create a more traceable and transparent food system and also increase poultry farm animal welfare.

Lea Oetiker	10,00 CHF
Stiftung "there-for-you"	5'000,00 CHF
Kurt Schumacher	250,00 CHF
Ernst Schwab	250,00 CHF
Thomas Rudolf	250,00 CHF
Thomas Rudolf	250,00 CHF
Gianna Schmidt	20,00 CHF

Currently, there are still no project partners if you are interested, please contact us via info@there-for-you.com.

Status of the project

6'030,00 CHF

6'000,00 CHF

We will send the donation receipt (for Switzerland) in January of the following year.

Major donor

Stiftung "there-for-you"

5'000 CHF