It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all to the web portal of ICAR- National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics (NIVEDI). NIVEDI is a premier national institute catering to the needs of surveillance and monitoring of livestock diseases and animal health information in the country. Our focus is on epidemiology, surveillance, forecasting & forewarning, and economics of livestock diseases including zoonoses. We are involved in the National Animal Disease Control Programmes under Livestock Health & Disease Control Programme (LH&DCP) scheme of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, GoI for developing nation-wide surveillance plans and seromonitoring of major economically important livestock diseases, (Foot and mouth disease, brucellosis, Peste des petits ruminants, blue tongue and classical swine fever). The Institute is actively involved in forecasting 13 major economically important livestock diseases outbreaks, utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning models for all districts in India. The Institute has developed a state-of-the-art software application i.e., National Animal Disease Referral Expert System version-2 (NADRES v2). It is an early warning system aimed to generate and disseminate livestock disease forewarning information and climate-associated disease risk factors, that enables the stakeholders to prepare and act appropriately to reduce the disease incidence to minimize morbidity and mortality through timely implementation of prevention and control measures. Early warning activities of the NADRES v2 are based on nation-wide disease surveillance, reporting, and epidemiological investigations and are supported by the geographical information system (GIS) that enables integration, analysis and sharing of animal health data combined with relevant layers of information such as livestock population, land use/cover, metrological data, remote sensing data, etc. This has led to the identification of dynamic and static livestock disease precipitating factors and has been useful for publishing periodical livestock disease forecasts and epi-reports of national importance. Identification of disease-specific zones and their depiction on maps is an important for disease control and mitigation in the country.
ICAR-National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics (NIVEDI), (Formerly the Project Directorate on Animal Disease Monitoring and Surveillance, PD-ADMAS) has been set up under the aegis of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, Government of India. ICAR-NIVEDI is a pioneering research institute working with the mandate of R&D in the field of veterinary epidemiology and disease informatics and carrying out disease surveillance, monitoring and impact analysis of livestock diseases in India through collaborative centers located in different states of the country. The Institute has a long successful history of delivering predicted informatics and epidemiological solutions for various animal diseases.
Located in Karnataka, ICAR-NIVEDI had its humble beginning as All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Animal Disease Monitoring and Surveillance (ADMAS) in 1987, up-graded to Project Directorate on Animal Disease Monitoring and Surveillance (PDADMAS) in 2000 and finally in the year 2013 it was rechristened as ICAR-NIVEDI. The coordinating units of AICRP-ADMAS continued to grow from four in 1987 to 31 till 2021. From April 2021 onwards, this has been rechristened as National Animal Disease Epidemiology Network (NADEN) with around forty-four centers at present. The Institute has state-of-the-art Bio-safety Level 2 laboratory, which is managed as per the national guidelines for laboratory biosafety and biosecurity practices.
The role of NIVEDI is significant in developing disease models, risk analysis, animal disease forecasting & forewarning. It is also working on development of population assay surveillance diagnostic kits for epidemiological serosurvey for field diagnosis. NIVEDI is also working on development of spreadsheet modules for economic impact analysis of important endemic livestock diseases viz., FMD, PPR, BT, Brucellosis, HS, LSD in the country. The role of this institute in the eradication of Rinderpest from India and the development of the National Animal Disease Referral Expert System (NADRES), an interactive software for animal disease forecasting is noteworthy.
The institute has developed and released various technologies and patented a few products which are being utilized by different stakeholders in the country. The institute has five patents granted to its credit and another five patents have been filed in the area of disease diagnostics. In addition, 3 applications have been copy-right registered, and another 4 applications are in pipeline in the field of veterinary epidemiology.
ICAR-NIVEDI has established an excellent National Livestock Serum Repository consisting of randomly collected serum samples from different livestock species. Currently, more than one lakh serum samples of various livestock species have been catalogued and stored. The said repository acts as a storehouse for a retrospective screening of livestock diseases and for development and validation of diagnostic assays.
The Institute has national and international collaborations with various organizations and stakeholders, including DBT, ICMR, NCDC, NIE, NIMHANS, CDC, FAO, WHO, WOAH, ILRI, BBSRC, MRC-UK, etc., for collaborative research, laboratory capacity building and human resource development. The institute has been conducting capacity building training programmes on epidemiology, economic impact, sampling frame, GIS and RS and disease diagnosis including biosafety and biosecurity. Naavic, the Agri-business incubation center is a unique facility of NIVEDI, nurturing the startups/entrepreneurs in the field of animal husbandry and veterinary services through identification, incubation, promotion and funding. This centre also provides need-based physical space for administrative and laboratory work, technical, business and networking support, facilities and services to test and validate their venture before successful establishment of enterprises.
ICAR-NIVEDI is in the forefront for the societal development of scheduled caste and schedule tribe communities through DAPSC and TSP programs. Under these GOI initiatives, goats, chickens along with feed, medicines and training programs have been provided to ensure economic, social upliftment and nutritional security for the children, rural women and youth.
The future priority areas for NIVEDI include improvement and strengthening of the existing disease forecasting system through development of a quality database using village/ block level livestock disease data, a database on climatic and non-climatic factors, research on animal disease simulation modelling for effective forecasting, improving the precision of forecasting models and validation, risk analysis and risk assessment of endemic, emerging and re-emerging diseases, development of risk map for optimal utilization of available resources and for better management of diseases. NIVEDI participation in the National Digital Livestock Mission (NDLM) of DAHD, GoI, and /or other organizations/ stakeholders for carrying out disease modeling, surveillance, monitoring and forewarning of livestock diseases, disease control programme like blue tongue, need-based diagnostics, population surveillance assay kits for epidemiological survey and field diagnosis, organizing capacity buildings programme, etc., including the integrated one health surveillance, epidemiological investigations of outbreaks, one health supporting unit’s capacity buildings and forecasting and forewarning of zoonoses. The estimation of country-wide economic losses due to important Livestock health, public health issues and economic impact of zoonotic diseases, R&D impact of animal health technologies, impact of climate change on animal disease incidence occurrence and emergence of new pathogens through modeling is the niche area for NIVEDI.
The feedback of all our stakeholders and readers on livestock disease epidemiology and informatics is solicited for improving the national livestock health, nutritional security of the country and increasing the income of livestock farmers.
