Abstract
Using primary data from a survey of swine, beef cattle, and dairy industry experts in the United States, this study provides insights into adoption of biosecurity measures aimed at reducing Tier 1 disease risks. Experts believe the swine industry would see the highest and the beef cattle industry would see the lowest biosecurity adoption in the first year of a large Tier 1 disease outbreak. Risk reduction has a positive marginal effect on biosecurity adoption, and a firm’s own risk reduction matters as well as their closest neighbor’s risk reduction. Costs have a negative marginal effect on biosecurity adoption. A key reason explaining partial adoption might be that experts believe industry-wide biosecurity investment would likely bring benefits primarily to downstream sectors in the supply chain and producers would bare most of the costs. More educational materials available to explain Tier 1 disease risks and the benefits of risk mitigating biosecurity measures is found to be the least important factor for adoption and implementation of new, additional biosecurity measures. A producer or neighbor having personally experienced a Tier 1 disease on their operation, a producer’s view on their own likelihood of experiencing a Tier 1 disease given their current situation, and a producer’s view on effectiveness in reducing Tier 1 disease risks are found to be the most important factors. Understanding how several factors might impact biosecurity adoption aimed at reducing Tier 1 disease risks is necessary for the development of practices and policies that could reduce the impact of such disease incursions.
Highlights
IntroductionBiosecurity adoption involves making resource allocation choices about low probability risks that may materialize in the indefinite future (Hennessy, 2008)
How livestock disease risk and biosecurity adoption is perceived is paramount to agricultural policy makers
We assessed biosecurity adoption aimed at reducing Tier 1 disease risks across three industries in the United States using an expert-opinion survey
Summary
Biosecurity adoption involves making resource allocation choices about low probability risks that may materialize in the indefinite future (Hennessy, 2008). Difficulties arise in practical implementation, such as how to implement biosecurity within the economic constraints of livestock production. Existing biosecurity plans offer protection against endemic diseases (Lewerin, Österberg, Alenius, Elvander, & Fellström, 2015) but heightened safeguards are needed for foreign animal diseases. According to the National Animal Health Monitoring System Program, almost one-third (32.1%) of beef cow-calf operations disagreed when asked if “The United States is well prepared to handle outbreaks of livestock disease currently not found in this country, such as foot-and-mouth disease and rinderpest” (USDA-APHIS-VS, 2010)
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