Finding Hidden Exposures
When an animal is diagnosed with a contagious disease, the critical question is: "Which other animals were exposed?"
Manual contact investigation is slow, error-prone, and often incomplete. You might remember animals in the same pen. But miss animals that shared that location two weeks ago. Or animals moved through the same handling facility.
Kora's automatic contact tracing analyses location history, movement records, and group memberships. It identifies every exposed animal within seconds. Comprehensive exposure detection without manual investigation.
How Automatic Contact Tracing Works
When a veterinarian diagnoses a contagious disease (through Veterinarian Observation documenting specific disease), Kora automatically:
- Identifies the diagnosed animal (index case)
- Determines lookback period (typically 14 days, adjustable based on disease incubation)
- Analyses three types of contact over that period:
- Animals currently at the same location or subdivision
- Animals with overlapping movement history
- Animals in the same mob or group
- Calculates risk score for each contact (0 to 100 points) based on:
- Contact type (direct vs indirect)
- Contact duration (longer exposure equals higher risk)
- Disease transmission rate (from disease profile)
- Proximity (same subdivision vs same location)
- Generates contact list sorted by risk score (highest risk first)
- Recommends quarantine for high-risk contacts (typically risk score more than 60 out of 100)
- Creates exposure records documenting each contact for audit trail
This entire process completes in seconds. From diagnosis to comprehensive contact list with quarantine recommendations.
Three Types of Contact Detection
Kora detects contacts through three complementary methods. Each identifies different exposure scenarios.
1. Current Location Contacts
What it detects: Animals currently sharing the same location or subdivision with the diagnosed animal.
How it works:
- Identifies all animals at the diagnosed animal's current location
- If subdivision is specified, prioritises animals in same subdivision (closer proximity)
- Calculates exposure duration from lookback period to diagnosis date
- Assigns higher risk to same-subdivision contacts vs same-location contacts
Example scenario:
- Bull A123 diagnosed with Bovine Viral Diarrhoea on Jan 15
- Lookback period: 14 days (Jan 1 to Jan 15)
- Current location: North Pasture, Subdivision: Pen 3
- Contact tracing finds:
- 5 cattle in Pen 3 (same subdivision): High-risk exposure, 14 days continuous contact
- 12 cattle in North Pasture (other pens): Medium-risk exposure, same location but different subdivisions
Why it matters: Current location contacts represent ongoing exposure. Animals still physically near the diagnosed case requiring immediate isolation.
2. Movement-Based Contacts
What it detects: Animals that were moved to or from the same locations where the diagnosed animal was present during the lookback period.
How it works:
- Reviews diagnosed animal's movement history over lookback period
- Identifies all locations the diagnosed animal visited
- Finds other animals that moved to or from those same locations during overlapping timeframes
- Calculates overlap duration (how long animals shared location)
- Assigns risk based on overlap duration and location type
Example scenario:
- Cow A456 diagnosed with Foot and Mouth Disease on Jan 15
- Lookback period: 14 days (Jan 1 to Jan 15)
- Movement history shows Cow A456 was:
- At Quarantine Pen (Jan 1 to Jan 5)
- Moved to South Pasture (Jan 5 to Jan 10)
- Moved to Handling Facility (Jan 10 to Jan 12)
- Moved to North Pasture (Jan 12 to Jan 15)
- Contact tracing finds:
- 3 cattle at South Pasture Jan 5 to 10: High-risk, 5 days overlap
- 8 cattle processed through Handling Facility Jan 10 to 12: Medium-risk, 2 days overlap
- 2 cattle briefly at Quarantine Pen Jan 3 to 4: Low-risk, 2 days before Cow A456 arrived
Why it matters: Movement-based contacts catch exposures from animals no longer at the same location. Critical for diseases with long incubation periods where transmission occurred days or weeks ago.
3. Group and Mob Contacts
What it detects: Animals that are or were in the same animal mob or group as the diagnosed animal.
How it works:
- Identifies diagnosed animal's current or recent mob membership
- Finds all animals in that same mob during lookback period
- Assumes continuous contact for all mob members
- Assigns high risk due to group living (constant close contact)
Example scenario:
- Sheep S789 in "Spring Lambs 2024" mob diagnosed with footrot on Jan 15
- Mob contains 50 lambs total
- Contact tracing finds:
- All 49 other lambs in Spring Lambs 2024 mob: High-risk exposure, continuous close contact
- Mob members automatically flagged for health monitoring
Why it matters: Group-managed animals are typically housed together continuously. One sick animal in a mob represents exposure risk to entire group. This detection ensures mob-level disease management.
Risk Scoring System
Each identified contact receives a risk score (0 to 100 points) indicating exposure severity. Higher scores mean greater transmission risk and higher quarantine priority.
Risk Score Factors
Contact type:
- Same subdivision: Plus 40 points (very close proximity)
- Same location (different subdivision): Plus 25 points (moderate proximity)
- Movement overlap: Plus 20 to 35 points (depends on overlap duration)
- Same mob or group: Plus 45 points (continuous close contact)
Contact duration:
- Brief contact (less than 1 day): Plus 5 points
- Short contact (1 to 3 days): Plus 10 points
- Moderate contact (4 to 7 days): Plus 20 points
- Extended contact (8 to 14 days): Plus 30 points
- Continuous contact (more than 14 days): Plus 40 points
Disease transmission rate (from disease profile):
- Low transmission (10 to 30 per cent): Multiply base score by 0.7
- Moderate transmission (30 to 60 per cent): Multiply base score by 1.0
- High transmission (60 to 90 per cent): Multiply base score by 1.3
- Very high transmission (more than 90 per cent): Multiply base score by 1.5
Example risk score calculation:
Contact: Cow B789 shared location with diagnosed FMD case
Base factors:
- Same subdivision: Plus 40 points
- Contact duration (7 days): Plus 20 points
- Base risk score: 60 points
Disease factor:
- FMD transmission rate: 80 per cent (High transmission)
- Multiplier: 1.3
- Final risk score: 60 multiplied by 1.3 equals 78 points (HIGH RISK)
Risk Score Interpretation
0 to 30 points (Low Risk):
- Brief or indirect exposure
- Monitor for symptoms
- No immediate quarantine needed
31 to 60 points (Medium Risk):
- Moderate exposure duration or proximity
- Close monitoring recommended
- Consider quarantine if symptoms develop
61 to 85 points (High Risk):
- Significant exposure (close proximity or long duration)
- Quarantine strongly recommended
- Daily health checks advised
86 to 100 points (Critical Risk):
- Extensive exposure (continuous close contact with highly transmissible disease)
- Immediate quarantine required
- Daily health checks mandatory
Risk scores help prioritise response. With limited quarantine capacity, quarantine highest-risk animals first. With ample capacity, quarantine all medium-risk and above.
Quarantine Recommendations
Based on calculated risk scores, contact tracing automatically generates quarantine recommendations.
High-risk contacts (more than 60 points): "Recommend Quarantine" status.
Critical-risk contacts (more than 85 points): "Urgent Quarantine Required" status.
Quarantine recommendation includes:
- Contact animal identifier
- Risk score and risk level
- Contact type and duration
- Recommended quarantine duration (from disease profile: incubation plus contagious periods)
- Suggested health check frequency
Example quarantine recommendation display:
CONTACT TRACING RESULTS: Bull A123 (Bovine Viral Diarrhoea)
CRITICAL RISK (3 animals), Immediate Quarantine Required:
- Cow B456: Risk score 92. Same subdivision, 14 days contact
Recommend: 15-day quarantine, daily health checks
- Cow B789: Risk score 88. Same subdivision, 12 days contact
Recommend: 15-day quarantine, daily health checks
- Bull C012: Risk score 86. Same mob, continuous contact
Recommend: 15-day quarantine, daily health checks
HIGH RISK (5 animals), Quarantine Strongly Recommended:
- Cow D345: Risk score 75. Movement overlap, 5 days
Recommend: 15-day quarantine, weekly health checks
- [4 more animals...]
MEDIUM RISK (8 animals), Close Monitoring:
- Cow E678: Risk score 45. Same location (different pen), 3 days
Recommend: Daily observation, quarantine if symptoms appear
- [7 more animals...]
One-Click Quarantine
Quarantine recommendations can be accepted with one click:
- Review contact tracing results
- Select animals to quarantine (typically all Critical and High risk)
- Click "Quarantine Selected Animals"
- System creates quarantine records for all selected animals simultaneously:
- Quarantine reason: "Disease Exposure: [Disease Name]"
- Duration: Automatically calculated from disease profile
- Start date: Today
- Health check schedule: Automatically configured based on risk level
- Exposure source: Links to diagnosed animal
- All quarantine Smart Badges appear on animal profiles
- Biosecurity Dashboard updated showing new quarantines
This one-click workflow transforms hours of manual quarantine setup into seconds. Comprehensive exposure response without repetitive data entry.
Contact Network Visualisation
Complex disease transmission involves chains of contacts. Animal A exposed Animal B, who exposed Animal C, who exposed Animal D. Contact network visualisation shows these transmission pathways graphically.
Network visualisation displays:
- Index case (diagnosed animal) at centre
- Direct contacts connected by lines showing contact type
- Secondary contacts (contacts of contacts) in outer ring
- Risk levels colour-coded (red equals critical, orange equals high, yellow equals medium, gray equals low)
- Contact details on hover (duration, risk score, location)
Example network interpretation:
Index Case: Bull A123 (centre, red circle)
├─ Direct Contact: Cow B456 (close line, red). Same subdivision, 14 days
├─ Direct Contact: Cow B789 (close line, red). Same subdivision, 12 days
└─ Direct Contact: Bull C012 (close line, orange). Movement overlap, 5 days
└─ Secondary Contact: Cow D345 (distant line, yellow). C012's previous location mate
This visualisation helps understand transmission pathways. Identify high-risk zones. Assess outbreak spread potential.
Outbreak Detection Trigger
When contact tracing identifies three or more related exposures from the same disease within a facility, Kora can automatically detect outbreak patterns.
Outbreak detection criteria:
- Same disease identified in three or more animals
- All exposures related (connected through contact network)
- Within same location or related locations
- Within relevant timeframe
What happens when outbreak detected:
- System prompts: "Outbreak Pattern Detected. Create Outbreak Event?"
- If accepted, creates OutbreakEvent coordinating multi-animal response:
- Links all related exposures into unified incident
- Tracks confirmed cases, suspected cases, total exposures
- Coordinates quarantine across all exposed animals
- Manages disease-specific biosecurity protocols
- Documents outbreak timeline and containment measures
- Facilitates regulatory notifications when required
- Outbreak status tracked through lifecycle: Pending, Active, Contained, Resolved, Archived
Example outbreak scenario:
Day 1: Bull A123 diagnosed with Foot and Mouth Disease
- Contact tracing identifies 8 high-risk exposures
Day 3: Health check reveals Cow B456 now shows FMD symptoms
- 2 confirmed cases (A123, B456)
- Contact tracing re-run from B456 finds 5 additional exposures
Day 5: Cow B789 confirmed FMD positive
- 3 confirmed cases
- OUTBREAK THRESHOLD REACHED
- System creates "FMD Outbreak: Valley Farm, Jan 2025"
- All 15 identified exposures linked to outbreak
- Outbreak status: Active
- Regulatory notification triggered
Outbreak management transforms scattered individual disease cases into coordinated incident response. Centralised tracking, systematic containment, and comprehensive documentation.
Best Practices for Contact Tracing
Run contact tracing immediately upon diagnosis: Do not wait. Exposed animals may already be transmitting disease. Immediate tracing enables rapid quarantine preventing further spread.
Use automatic quarantine recommendations: Trust the risk scores. They are calculated from disease-specific transmission data, contact duration, and proximity factors. High-risk contacts should be quarantined even if appearing healthy.
Re-run contact tracing if new cases emerge: When a contact develops disease, run contact tracing again from that animal. Secondary exposures may exist beyond the original index case's contacts.
Document contact tracing decisions: If you choose not to quarantine a high-risk contact, document reasoning. Audit trail for biosecurity decision-making.
Review contact networks for pattern identification: Repeated contacts through the same location may indicate environmental contamination requiring sanitisation.
Maintain accurate movement records: Contact tracing quality depends on movement data accuracy. GPS auto-capture (Chapter 7.3) and systematic movement recording improve contact detection.
Use GPS-tagged observations: Field observations with GPS coordinates (Chapter 10.1) enhance location-based contact detection accuracy.
Extend lookback period for long-incubation diseases: Default 14-day lookback works for most diseases. But some have longer incubation requiring extended lookback.
Integration with Other Features
Contact tracing connects deeply with other Kora features.
Veterinarian Observations (Chapter 10.1): Disease diagnoses trigger automatic contact tracing. Diagnosis observation links to all exposure records.
Movement Records (Chapter 7.3): Movement history enables movement-based contact detection. Accurate movement tracking improves contact tracing accuracy.
Quarantine Management (11.2): Contact tracing generates quarantine recommendations. One-click quarantine accepts recommendations creating quarantine records.
Knowledge API (Chapter 4): Disease profiles provide transmission rates, incubation periods, and contagious periods. Used in risk scoring and quarantine duration calculation.
Outbreak Management: Three or more related exposures trigger outbreak detection. Outbreaks coordinate multi-animal response across all contacts.
Biosecurity Zones (Chapter 9.4): Zones can be activated for quarantine areas identified through contact tracing.
Traceability (Chapter 12): All contact exposures create traceability records. Exposure timeline documented permanently for regulatory compliance.
Maps (Chapter 9): GPS-tagged observations and location data enable accurate spatial contact detection. Contact networks can be visualised geographically.