Animal-welfare friendly control of epizootics does not have to be expensive - An analysis using the example of classical swine fever

摘要

Swine fever is the epizootic with the largest economic impact in the field of swine production. The outbreak of an animal disease is a potential threat, which can destroy the economic basis of a farm. Furthermore, the disease outbreak leads to high emotional stress for the affected livestock owners due to the slaughter of a large number of animals. Finally, the slaughtering of a large number of mostly healthy animals is increasingly refused by the wider public. The demand for new, more animal-welfare friendly measures to fight animal diseases, as for instance emergency vaccination, has received increasing attention. In this paper, we economically evaluate emergency vaccination against swine fever within the current framework. The results are compared with the ones of the control strategy "culling". The results show that the use of emergency vaccination is economically not a disadvantage compared to culling. However, it becomes clear that at present marketing is the biggest issue to the lack of acceptance of vaccinated animals. Furthermore, the shortage of vaccine, staff or material can be a challenge in regions with a high stock density.