African Aquatic Veterinary Sciences: a comparative evidence study of African Aquatic Veterinary Sciences pathways, implementation constraints, and policy implications in Africa

This protocol develops a spatial comparative framework for aquatic veterinary science in Africa, using Ethiopia as a methodological exemplar for continental comparison of service pathways, implementation constraints and policy options. It argues that fragmented mandates, uneven diagnostic capacity and ecologically differentiated production systems cannot be understood without explicit geography, and therefore proposes a Composite Spatial Index for Aquatic Veterinary Planning (CSI-AVP) integrating Slope, Drainage density, Rainfall intensity, Land cover, Soil permeability, Elevation and Distance to channels. The article synthesises continental evidence on aquaculture growth, disease risk and institutional development with Ethiopian hydrological and land-resource scholarship to specify administrative spatial units, public data sources and analytical operations including kernel density estimation, buffer analysis and network connectivity. The analysis workflow (Script 1) is described as a reproducible sequence from data standardisation to weighted overlay and policy thresholds. The framework proposes how choropleth expression of the index would permit estimation of priority zones for surveillance, extension and investment without claiming observed outcomes.