Economic Benefits of Animal Tracing in the Cattle Production Sector

• Main Author: Levan Elbakidze
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Western Agricultural Economics Association 2007-04-01
• Series: Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics
• Subjects: animal tracing; cost minimization; infectious disease spread mitigation
• Online Access: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/8597

One of the options to prepare for a potential outbreak of an infectious livestock disease is to initiate an animal tracking system, which would provide information on animal movements and facilitate disease management. This study examines the benefits of implementing an animal tracking system in the context of a simulated cattle disease outbreak with and without animal tracking. Estimates are provided for some of the losses that would be avoided with an animal tracking system if an infectious animal disease were introduced. The results show that the economic efficiency of an animal tracking system depends on such factors as inter-herd contact rates, effectiveness of animal disease response actions, and the extent to which an animal tracking system decreases the time of tracing animal movements. In the event of a highly infectious animal disease outbreak, substantial economic losses could be avoided if an effective animal tracking system is implemented.