What Determines Pig Farmers' Epidemic Coping Behaviors: A Qualitative Analysis of Endemically Infected Areas in Relation to African Swine Fever.

Bo Xu,Chengmei Qiu,Yanling Li,Wei Zhang,Lijuan Zhou

doi:10.3390/vetsci8110266

Bo Xu, Chengmei Qiu + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci8110266

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Abstract

An animal epidemic is a big threat for economic development that may seriously disturb the breeding industry and people’s normal life. The most effective approach so far for epidemic control is biosecurity, zoning, culling animals exposed, and other relevant measures, which highly demands the cooperation of farmers in epidemic areas. However, an uncooperative phenomenon among individual farmers facing an epidemic has been recorded for a long time and includes unwilling to report the epidemic and selling infected pork. It is important to unravel the determinants of farmers’ coping behaviors during an animal epidemic outbreak and use corresponding strategies to reduce farmers’ inappropriate behaviors. Taking African Swine Fever (ASF) crisis as an example, this study aimed to reveal the determinants and underlying mechanism of pig farmers’ coping behaviors. We adopted qualitative interviews with 45 pig farmers across four endemically infected areas in Hunan provinces, and the data collected were subjected to a grounded theory analysis. Our results showed that emergency response, information sources, and information channels jointly affected pig farmers’ epidemic risk perception and their perception of coping behaviors. Meanwhile, both the characteristics of the government and pig farmers moderated this affect. Consequently, by processing information through either a heuristic or an analytical path, pig farmers’ behavioral intention was transformed into actual coping behaviors. Our study emphasizes the value of sufficient risk communication, proper compensation policies, and strong public trust in the government for improving the farmers’ participation in the epidemic response. Theoretical and practical implications to animal epidemic prevention and control are provided.

Highlights

Taking African Swine Fever (ASF) epidemic as an example, this study explored the underlying mechanism of pig farmers’ coping behaviors by using a grounded theory approach
Emergency response, information sources, and information channels are the basis for risk perception and behavioral perception by pig farmers
The complementary information network of traditional and new media that has been formed in rural China included face-to-face propaganda, epidemic prevention services provided by grassroots government staff, timely announcement of information by village radio and bulletin boards, as well as new media channels such as WeChat and TikTok

Summary

Introduction

African Swine Fever (ASF) is an acute, hemorrhagic, and severe infectious disease caused by the African swine fever virus infecting domestic pigs and wild boars [1], and leads to almost 100% mortality [2] It was first recorded in 1921 when it emerged as an acute haemorrhagic fever in domestic pigs in East Africa [3], and seldom spread out of African countries before the 1950s [4]. The first reported ASF outbreak in Asia was in North-East China (Shenyang City, Liaoning province), in August 2018 [5,6]. Since it has been found across the nation. Since no recognized treatment for ASF exists, the most commonly adopted strategies for disease prevention and control are primarily on biosecurity, early detection and reporting, movement restrictions and zoning, and culling animals exposed [5,8]

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