IEEE Spectrum December, 2007 - 11

online health records could keep outbreaks from spreading to humans

Keeping track of 100 head of cattle is
logical illness at a community hospital
a job for a cowboy; keeping track of
in another part of the city. In addition,
2 million elephants, emus, octopuses,
scores of crows were found dead within
orangutans, and other animals in the
the metropolitan area. By 27 September,
world's more than 700 zoos and aquarifour human deaths and 37 illnesses
ums is a job for a coder. Zookeepers in
had been reported due to what the
21 institutions have just begun testCDC identified as West Nile virus, the
ing the new Zoological Information
first outbreak ever documented in the
Management System (ZIMS), a
Western Hemisphere. It had taken more
US $20 million real-time global netthan a month after the first reported bird
work of zoo and aquarium medical files
deaths for the CDC to make its diagnoand animal husbandry records. One of
sis. If the initial flamingo and pheasant
the main goals of ZIMS is to monitor
deaths at the zoo had been reported
the spread of animal diseases that can
to an operational ZIMS network, the
potentially cross over to humans.
response would have been quicker,
"ZIMS tracks the health and transaccording to Jaime Meyer, a spokesman
port of zoo animals through the career
for the International Species Information
of the animal," says Tracee Treadwell,
System (ISIS), a nonprofit organization in
a veterinarian and public health expert
Eagan, Minn. ISIS maintains computerat the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC),
in Atlanta. "We have been
involved in the initial design of
the system and see its potential
to identify new and emerging
diseases among these animals."
Signs of human disease have
shown up in zoo animals in
the past. In August 1999, for
example, veterinarians at the
Bronx Zoo, in New York City,
reported the deaths of some
flamingos and pheasants. Later
THE dEEP: The Monterey Bay
that month, two people were
Aquarium, in California, will use ZIMS.
diagnosed with a strange neuro-

20 IEEE Spectrum | December 2007 | NA

based information systems used by zoos
and aquariums in 72 countries. "An alert
would be issued in a matter of minutes.
And with a mouse click or two by zoo
staff around the world, they could check
to see if their zoo had any recent contact
or whether an animal was transferred to
or from the infected zoo," Meyer says.
The information could then be passed on
to government health agencies.
Zoos routinely perform disease surveillance and diagnosis, but the process
has not been automated. The only way
for a zoo or aquarium to obtain information from another zoo has been for it to
make a formal request through the mail,
by phone, or by e-mail.
ZIMS is designed to replace two
DOS-based programs that ISIS has
used for the last 20 years: the Animal
Records Keeping System (ARKS) and
the Medical Animal Records Keeping
System (MedARKS), Bronx Zoo veterinarian Paul Calle says. ARKS is
used for recording where animals
are and where they are transferred.
Veterinarians use MedARKS to maintain medical records. ZIMS is 10 times
as sophisticated as the two outdated
software programs, says Calle. Neither
ARKS nor MedARKS contains any
mechanism to disseminate information
widely. Disease outbreaks in other
countries might not be known for days
or weeks, he says. Calle is developing
some of the clinical computer screens
ZIMS users will access to retrieve
laboratory results, disease serology,
prescriptions, and information on procedures such as anesthesia.
Eighty staff members at 21 zoos and
aquariums around the globe have begun
testing the software in real-world situations. So far, 143 institutions
have contributed to the development of ZIMS, and by fall 2008,
ZIMS is expected to begin rolling out to ISIS member institutions at a rate of 20 per month.
That's assuming ISIS comes
up with the money. "We have
essentially found the funding
to create the application, but we
still must find the money-about
$3 million-to deploy it worldwide and to provide the higher
level of technical support that
ZIMS will require," Meyer says.
-BARRy e. diGReGoRio

www.spectrum.ieee.org

top: NIR ELIAS/REUtERS; bottoM: JoHN WARDEN/gEttY IMAgES

NEWS

Zoos Network
To Contain Disease

VETTEd BY VETS: A new computer network might
help keep bird flu and other diseases from spreading
among animals in zoos and aquariums.

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum December, 2007