Horse-Expert: An aided expert system for diagnosing horse diseases.

The research study is focused on the development of Horse-Expert, a computer-aided expert system that assists in diagnosing horse diseases, intending to support veterinarians and improve the accuracy and efficiency of their diagnostics.

Research Goal

• This study was conducted to design and develop a computer-aided expert system, named Horse-Expert, to diagnose horse diseases. The system is meant to provide a solution to China’s horse husbandry sector, which lacks enough expert veterinarians or advanced diagnostic systems despite its rapid development.

Proposed Approach

• The researchers proposed an approach to diagnose horse diseases based on the analysis of diagnostic characteristics and domain expert’s experience.
• The approach uses the evidence-weighted uncertainty reasoning theory, a combination of evidence theory and an uncertainty pass algorithm of confidence factors.
• This approach can infer results even with atypical clinical signs and the user’s subjective understanding, thus reducing the impact of subjective factors on the diagnostics.

Horse-Expert System

• The expert system employs a user-friendly interface, asking for a confidence factor from the users whenever they provide feedback to the system.
• It utilizes the confidence factors together with weight factors assigned to clinical signs by experts during the knowledge acquisition process to make diagnostic conclusions.
• The system is capable of diagnosing 91 common horse diseases and provides suggestions for treatment.
• It also includes a feature that allows users to review the medical record through statistical charts.

Practical Testing and Application

• The system was tested in seven demonstration areas in the Xinjiang province of northwestern China.
• With consistent maintenance and updating of the knowledge base, the system shows potential for widespread application in veterinary practice.