project_27286 - ENETWild MammalTracker

Risk assessment for some pathogens of interest for humans and livestock requires the availability of presence and abundance data on wild species which can represent reservoirs for pathogens. Many European countries and organizations collect spatial data on distribution and abundance of wildlife, but each one has its own specific characteristics with respect to the methodology used, the type of data acquired, the repository implemented and their accessibility. Through ENETWILD, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is funding a "Citizen Science" project to collect comparable data at European level in order to analyse risks of diseases shared between wildlife, livestock and humans; data that are also essential in conservation and wildlife management. APHA, an executive agency, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, are a contracted partner in this EFSA funded project and have been tasked under the agreement with the adaptation of a current smart phone application called MammalTracker. MammalTracker (http://www.brc.ac.uk/mammal_tracker/) is a smartphone application originally developed by Natural Apptitude (https://www.natural-apptitude.co.uk/) for the Biological Records Centre (BRC), a subgroup of the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology (CEH). The application allows users to record sightings of mammals across the UK, logging their species and location.