Because many infectious diseases are emerging in ani-mals in low-income and middle-income countries, surveil-lance of animal health in these areas may be needed for forecasting disease risks to humans. We present an over-view of a mobile phone–based frontline surveillance system developed and implemented in Sri Lanka. Field veterinar-ians reported animal health information by using mobile phones. Submissions increased steadily over 9 months, with ≈4,000 interactions between fi eld veterinarians and reports on the animal population received by the system. Development of human resources and increased commu-nication between local stakeholders (groups and persons whose actions are affected by emerging infectious diseases and animal health) were instrumental for successful imple-mentation. The primary lesson learned was that mobile phone–based surveillance of animal populations is accept-able and feasible in lower-resource settings. However, any system implementation plan must consider the time needed to garner support for novel surveillance methods among us-ers and stakeholders
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