Development and Evaluation of a Mobile App for Livestock Disease Surveillance in Rural Zimbabwean Communities

Rural communities in Zimbabwe face challenges in timely detection of livestock diseases due to limited access to veterinary services and resources. A mixed-methods approach was employed, including formative research, user testing, and statistical analysis. A convenience sample of 50 farmers from eight randomly selected villages was used. During the pilot phase, a 72% response rate to app notifications indicated high engagement among rural livestock owners in disease reporting. The mobile app demonstrated potential for improving surveillance efficiency and timely intervention against livestock diseases in Zimbabwean rural settings. Further refinement of the app is recommended based on feedback collected during user testing, with scalability considerations to larger areas being explored. mobile app, disease surveillance, rural Zimbabwe, veterinary services The empirical specification follows $Y=\beta_0+\beta^\top X+\varepsilon$, and inference is reported with uncertainty-aware statistical criteria.