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Assessing economic and social pressure for the control of bovine viral diarrhoea virus George J Gunn & Helmut Saatkamp & Helmut Saatkamp
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Why do we want to assess pressure for the control of BVDV ? Because we see a contradiction between what science tells us and what is happening out there.
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Why are we examining economic and social pressure ? These are always the drivers for farm business level decisions
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What have the other speakers told us? u Fascinating epidemiology of this disease u Pestivirus are an important group u BVDV often causes serious damage to the bovine host u It must cause serious income loss to all affected farm businesses u Examined the different possibilities for control
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What have the other speakers told us? u Vaccines u Marker vaccines u Control strategies u Eradication u Improved tests u Virus isolation u and so on………..
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As scientists we would accept that there is strong evidence that: u BVDV infections can be a serious welfare problem u BVDV significantly damages the farm business u BVDV results in less efficient use of farm resources u BVDV results in society paying higher food prices
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So after the last two days who could blame the audience for thinking that there could not be a more important disease than BVD?
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So how are our farm businesses responding to this serious threat? u Excellent example of the Scandinavian countries u Norway, Finland, Sweden & Denmark close to eradication u Iceland free u Shetlands eradicated BVD u Now who else? u Germany, Italy, Austria, Scotland and France have started regional programmes u The Netherlands, Portugal and mainland UK have voluntary programmes u Most EU countries have some initiatives
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BUT………….BUT…………. u Although these are great examples they do not include many of Europes cattle u Most European farmers do not know what BVD stands for u (probably as sister football team to PSV :>)) u Most European veterinary surgeons do not appear to think BVD is important u more interested in dogs, cats & rabbits u The public certainly do not know what B VD stands for u a B list sexually transmitted disease?
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What are the public interested in? u Increasingly interested in cattle welfare u Large variation between different countries and regions u Interested in zoonotic diseases: BSE, salmonella etc. u Interested in dramatic media images such as FMD & TSEs u Really BVD only scores for welfare
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What interests the farmers? u Farm resources are limited u Disease is often not top of the list for allocation of scarce resources u Farmers award higher priorities to other matters such as labour costs and animal feed u Diseases with obvious production and welfare links such as mastitis and lameness are more likely to attract attention
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What interests the farmers? BVD is rather occult and so is easy to ignore
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So where does BVD fit in? u BVD occupies an intermediate status as an endemic disease u This may be less than it deserves u OIE status for CSF raises awareness but then the disease does that for itself (HS) u Immunosuppression, depressed fertility and congenital abnormalities are all non-specific
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Our group have focussed on farm business level economic arguments using existing models
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Output of Scottish beef BVD model
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Beef herd breakdown of costs Total Cost = £38 per cow p.a. Calf Immune Suppression (7%) Other Calf Losses (5%) PI Calves (18%) Abortions (9%) Reproductive Loss in Cows (17%) Reproductive Loss in Heifers (28%) PI Cows & Heifers (16%) (CF)
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ExamplesExamples u Results of survey u Use UK model to compare results for different countries/regions u Use Dutch model to examine benefit/cost ratios for control
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Survey for critical parameter estimates u Herd size u PI prevalence among purchased u Biosecurity risk u Milk price u Livestock value u Veterinary costs u Blood test cost u Bulk milk test cost
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Herd Size
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Milk Price
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Livestock Value
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Prevalence PIs Prevalence of PIs among purchased cattle
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Biosecurity Risk of biosecurity breakdown
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Veterinary cost Cost of veterinary input
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Blood sample Cost of blood test
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Bulk milk cost Cost of bulk milk testing
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Herd Size Herd Size & Milk Price & Livestock Value Milk Price Livestock Value
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Comparison of losses due to BVDV in different farming systems
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NPV and loss in K
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Percentage loss by country
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Percentage losses due to BVD
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Dutch benefit/cost ratios
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Sero-prevalence Dutch situation open herd with three groups with BVD control Sero-prevalence Dutch situation closed herd with three groups without BVD control
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Benefit/Cost-ratios for different Dutch situations
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Conclusions for Dutch situation Feasibility BVD control program: u open herd with single group: worthwhile u open herd with three groups : worthwhile in 50% of cases u closed herd: u Only worthwhile for worst case scenarios u However the costs of establishing closed herd not included: decide on herd to herd basis
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Constrained by lack of reliable data u Slowly reliable farm level data is being established for different countries (FB) u However the economic teams are genuinely constrained by the lack of reliable information u Meanwhile they are developing new methods to explore the socio-economic issues surrounding BVDV (AS & RH)
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Conclusions 1 u An information gap exists u Our objective must be to provide better decision support data for stakeholders F for government F for veterinary practice F for farmers u We need to establish more facts u We need to agree among ourselves
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Conclusions 2 u More work requires to be done to convince decision makers that BVDV control is a worthwhile use of resources and deserves a higher priority u The only way that this can be achieved is through improved education
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AcknowledgementsAcknowledgements u The Milk Development Council (MDC) funded the dairy cow research project u The Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department provide SAC with financial support and funded the projects to develop the methodologies used for this study and the beef cow project u Thank the BVD Thematic Network for inviting me to speak u In particular thank our colleagues Alistair Stott, Roger Humphry, John Santarossa and Hybert Groenendaal
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Letter from America People never call me because they are having a good day. They only call me when they are really pissed-off and want to know which rat-bastard to sue. uJuJuJuJ. R. 2004
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