A New Tool to Assess the Economic Impact of Q Fever on Dairy Cattle Farms

Abstract

To support farmers in their decisions related to Q fever, a dedicated economic assessment tool is developed. The present work describes the calculator, its economic rationale, and the supporting assumptions. The calculator integrates a yearly compartmental model to represent population dynamism and the main interactions between disorders linked to Q fever, especially reproductive disorders (abortion, retained foetal membranes, purulent vaginal discharge and endometritis, extra services, and calving–conception delays). The effects of the nontangible cost of the disease on human health, the welfare of the animals, and the workload of farmers were not integrated into the model. The model shows high-level sensitivity to the prevalence of Q fever in the herd prevaccination and to the costs of abortion and extra days of calving–conception intervals. Breakeven points, i.e., cost values that allow us to achieve positive vaccination benefits, are also reported. For herds with moderate or high prevalence rates of Q fever prevaccination (>30%), a vaccination benefit is observed. The vaccine should be considered a type of insurance in herds with low prevalence rates of Q fever prevaccination (≤20%). The calculator was developed to aid decision-making at the farm level, and no conclusion can be extrapolated as a generic trend based on the present work.