Comparative study on prevention and control policies of major animal epidemics in China—Quantitative analysis of policy texts from 1972-2019

Abstract

The matching of central and provincial governments' policy themes and the correspondence between them are important for measuring the accurate delivery of policies. Such measurement can directly reflect policy connections between the central and provincial governments and is helpful in understanding the strength and effect of policy implementation. In this study of animal epidemic prevention and control policy texts issued by central and provincial government departments from 1972 to 2019, the themes of the texts were determined by the segmentation of high- and low-frequency keywords, and the quantitative analysis was carried out in four dimensions: the year, number, subject and theme of each policy. The findings indicate that the central government takes the initiative in preventing and controlling animal epidemics and adjusts prevention and control measures through feedback, mostly using restrictive tools. The provincial governments’ prevention and control of animal epidemics are a combination of active and passive types, and the tools used basically have the same characteristics as those used by the central government. The central government has formed an animal epidemic prevention and control emergency management decision-making group with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China and the State Administration for Market Supervision and Administration as the core. The policy text themes of provincial governments and agricultural animal disease prevention and control management departments match more closely than those of the central government. The study suggests that the central government's animal epidemic prevention and control policy themes can increase coverage and promote the implementation of provincial government prevention and control management measures. Provincial governments can form decision-making groups for the emergency management of animal epidemics, mobilize enthusiasm for animal epidemic prevention and control and receive feedback information, and enhance their ability to actively intervene in epidemic prevention and control.