Abstract
In a globalized world, the frequency of transboundary livestock infectious diseases is increasing, and strengthening of farm biosecurity is vital to stabilize food production. The aim of this study was to understand the decision-making process for farm biosecurity among Japanese livestock farmers. Postal surveys using structured questionnaires were conducted on beef, dairy, pig, and layer farms in Hokkaido and Saitama Prefectures, which represent the principal production area and peri-urban Tokyo, respectively, as well as randomly selected broiler farms across Japan. The question items included the attributes of farms and owners, disease experiences, related associations and sources of hygiene information, attitude toward hygiene management, and compliance with the Standards of Rearing Hygiene Management (SRHM). The compliance rates were compared between livestock sectors. Univariable analyses were conducted using combined data from both prefectures, with the compliance rate as the outcome variable and the questionnaire items as explanatory variables, in generalized linear models. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted using the variables with p < 0.2 in the univariable analyses. The factors identified were classified into knowledge, attitude, capacity, practice, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed. The questionnaires were completed and returned by 97 and 66 beef cattle, 86 and 136 dairy, 67 and 45 pig, 20 and 39 layer farmers in Hokkaido and Saitama Prefectures, respectively, and 95 broiler farms. The compliance rate was significantly higher among broiler farms (88.9%) compared with the other sectors, followed by pig (77.1%), layer (67.2%), dairy (63.8%), and beef (59.1%) farms in Hokkaido Prefecture, and layer (64.9%), pig (60.0%), dairy (58.5%), and beef (57.6%) farms in Saitama Prefecture. Based on SEM, the decision-making process from greater knowledge to higher attitude, and from higher attitude to greater compliance with the SRHM were significant (p < 0.01) in all sectors. Higher capacity was significantly associated with higher knowledge in dairy, pig,break and layer farms (p < 0.01), and with higher compliance in beef, pig, and layer farms (p < 0.05). These results suggest that the provision of targeted hygiene knowledge to livestock farmers and the support to smallholder farms would improve biosecurity through elevated attitudes and self-efficacy.
Highlights
Infectious diseases remain a significant threat to the livestock industry in a globalized world
Substantial efforts were made to implement the Standards of Rearing Hygiene Management (SRHM) on livestock farms, in 2013, porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), which was causing a global pandemic, occurred in Japan, resulting in the deaths of over 500,000 pigs in the country [16]
All the focus group discussions (FGDs) were facilitated by an epidemiologist who was trained in participatory epidemiology and had 5-years’ experience of the application in research
Summary
Infectious diseases remain a significant threat to the livestock industry in a globalized world. In 2010, major outbreaks of FMD and highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) occurred in Japan, during which a total of 1.8 million chickens, 230,000 pigs, and 70,000 cattle were culled, causing serious losses to the livestock sectors [13, 14]. After these major outbreaks, in 2011, the MAFF revised the SRHM by setting species-specific standards for [1] cattle, buffaloes, deer, sheep, and goats, [2] pigs and domesticated wild boars, [3] poultry, and [4] horses, and by increasing the number of hygiene standards from 10 to 22–25 items [15]. The recent incursion of classical swine fever into the wild boar population has been causing infections on Japanese pig farms since 2018 [19, 20], and improvements in farm biosecurity are becoming increasingly important
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