A cost/benefit study of paratuberculosis certification in French cattle herds

Abstract

-Paratuberculosis has received increasing attention in France because of the important losses this disease may provoke. The use of certification schemes has proven its effectiveness for the protection of healthy herds against diseases transmitted mainly by trade. The economic justification of such schemes in the particular case of paratuberculosis is studied, for French cattle herds, using a cost/benefit approach. The basic economical hypotheses and estimates have been proposed and carefully examined by a working group composed of paratuberculosis experts and field specialists. By adopting the point of view of a breeder that buys animals, we first estimated the benefits resulting from the non-introduction of the disease. They were then compared with the costs resulting from the fact that the vendor reports its own certification costs on the price of the animals he sells. Two average herds (the mean French beef herd and the mean French dairy herd), and two certification levels were studied. The results show that, currently, the use of the certification is not very economically profitable in French cattle herds. This conclusion, however should be reappraised if the certification costs decrease, for example with the commercialization of diagnostic tests on mixtures. paratuberculosis / cost-benefit analysis / certification

Economic impact of paratuberculosis in dairy cattle herds: a review

“…Economic losses attributable to PTB are a result of premature culling, reduced milk production, and loss of body weight in cattle sold for slaughter (Wells and Wagner, 2000). Dufour et al (2004) classified the losses attributable to PTB into two groups:…”

“…For instance it is known that, despite the fact that they do not show any clinical sign, the milk production of subclinically infected animals is lower than the production of healthy animals. Dufour et al (2004) Chi et al (2002) determined that in a 50-cow herd, direct production losses and treatment costs due to four infectious diseases: bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), enzootic bovine leukosis (EBL), PTB and neosporosis. Direct production losses included milk loss, premature culling and reduced slaughter value, mortality loss, abortion and reproductive loss.…”

“…For example, dairy cattle herds in France are rather small in size (on average 40 cows) in comparison with other countries (Dufour et al, 2004). Due to that fact, the results obtained in one country cannot be directly applied to another one.…”

“…In contrast, specific effects during the subclinical stage of the disease have not been documented as well, and contradictory results have often been obtained. Calculation of losses caused by PTB is associated to a certain degree with the production system of a herd represented by its size, production level, herd management (above all rearing of calves and young animals), and other factors (Dufour et al, 2004).…”

“…However, reported losses are inconsistent, ranging from 2.2 to 25.0% of annual herd production. Dufour et al (2004) focused their study on the reduction of milk production in animals affected with both clinical and subclinical forms of this disease. They found that the expense caused by milk production loss in clinical cases is additional to the other expenses in dairy herds.…”