Good biosecurity is central to reducing the risk of disease agents being introduced and spread not just at farm level, but also at regional and national boundaries. Considerable time and effort has been invested in promoting and encouraging farmers to improve their biosecurity, although this is not always consistently and effectively implemented at farm level (BPEX;1Pitkin et al., 2009). Communication on the importance of biosecurity often focuses on the major economic impact of epidemics of exotic disease at national level. In the 1997–1998 outbreak of classical swine fever in The Netherlands, for example, 429 farms were infected and detected, >13,000 farms were involved in implementing one or more control measures, and >11 million pigs were destroyed. The total financial consequences of that outbreak were estimated at US$2.3 billion (Meuwissen et al., 1999),2 while the cost of the 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK to both the public and private sector has been estimated at >￡8 billion (National Audit Office, 2002).
展开▼
