The AHOL ontology (Animal Health Ontology for Livestock) was built collaboratively within a network of experts in the livestock health field, in order to describe production diseases (GISA metaprogram or Integrated management of animal health). Its structure is based on the type of disease: communicable, non communicable, genetic, metabolic, physical or psychological. The properties of each disease are related to associated symptoms (the expression of a phenotypical character), the affected organism (livestock, poultry, mammals, fishes) or the one causing the disease (virus, bacteria, fungus, parasite).
The AHOL ontology can be used as a tool of decision-making for integrated health management, potential health status severity assessment, or as an additional way of perfecting a diagnostic. Moreover, intertwined knowledge provided by the three ontologies, ATOL, EOL and AHOL, allows for the design of methods of action capable of guaranteeing the multiperformance of livestock and cattle; thanks to semantic, syntactic and technical interoperability of data and databases from various sources.
