Ontologies related to livestock for the Global Burden of Animal Diseases programme: a review

The Global Burden of Animal Diseases (GBADs) programme aims to assess the impact of animal health on agricultural animals, livestock production systems and associated communities worldwide. As part of the objectives of GBADs'Animal Health Ontology theme, the programme reviewed conceptual frameworks, ontologies and classification systems in biomedical science. The focus was on data requirements in animal health and the connections between animal health and human and environmental health. In May 2023, the team conducted searches of recognised repositories of biomedical ontologies, including BioPortal, Open Biological and Biomedical Ontology Foundry, and Ontology Lookup Service, to identify animal and livestock ontologies and those containing relevant concepts. Sixteen ontologies were found, covering topics such as surveillance, anatomy and genetics. Notable examples include the Animal Trait Ontology for Livestock, the Animal Health Surveillance Ontology, the National Center for Biotechnology Information Taxonomy and the Uberon Multi-Species Anatomy Ontology. However, some ontologies lacked class definitions for a significant portion of their classes. The review highlights the need for domain evidence to support proposed models, critical appraisal of external ontologies before reuse, and external expert reviews along with statistical tests of agreements. The findings from this review informed the structural framework, concepts and rationales of the animal health ontology for GBADs. This animal health ontology aims to increase the interoperability and transparency of GBADs data, thereby enabling estimates of the impacts of animal diseases on agriculture, livestock production systems and associated communities globally.