Economic analysis of biosecurity adoption in dairy farming: evidence from Ireland.

Maintaining good animal health is important for farm busi­nesses; and livestock disease outbreaks can have considerable economic consequences affecting trade, food prices, and pub­lic health. Government control efforts, such as government-mandated testing, herd move­ment restrictions, and culling of reactor animals to eliminate diseases, are often a last resort. Thus, implementing farm-specific biosecurity plans can help to mitigate disease spread in the first place, and as such avoid ‘last resort’ measures. However, at the farm level, dis­ease control efforts are often associated with additional costs. Also, farmers may not always be fully aware of subclinical animal diseases. This underlines the importance of promoting biosecurity practices on farms. Given the perceived cost burden, the study cited below investigated the effect of critical intervention and management factors on economic outcomes of dairy farms in Ireland.

In the study parametric and nonparametric estimation methods were applied to assess the economic implications of adopting the following biosecurity measures: vaccination, bulk tank milk testing for diseases, and not pooling colostrum from more than one animal. The analysis was based on a dataset of almost 300 dairy farmers that included information on the adoption of these practices combined with detailed informa­tion on the farm’s economic performance.

The findings supported the adoption of biosecurity measures. Specifically, the study revealed that vaccination and testing bulk tank milk for diseases are associated with economic benefits result­ing in higher gross margins per cow, whereas the results did not provide evidence of any economic benefits associated with not pool­ing colostrum. Importantly though, not pooling colostrum from more than one animal as a biosecurity practice was not neg­atively associated with economic outcomes of farms, which implies farmers can use this management technique freely, provided normal health and safety measures are applied.

 These results are important from a policy perspective to support increased adoption of biosecurity practices among dairy farmers globally, also in South Africa.