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What do we know about the economic impact of FMD in smallholder production? - Summary of the evidence Jonathan Rushton Professor of Animal Health Economics, Norbrook Endowed Chair in Veterinary Business Management Royal Veterinary College, London, UK

Theo Knight-Jones Epidemiologist International Livestock Research Institute, Zambia

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• FMD is most prevalent in regions where households are most dependent upon livestock

• This raises the question of what is known about the burden of the disease on smallholder producer.

• The paper will attempt to answer this question in order to resolve if FMD is simply a problem for large scale cattle producers and their associated milk and beef value chains

• Or that more logically that FMD affects all people across a society

Introduction

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• Online search was carried out searching for papers in Pubmed, google scholar and google web for terms “FMD” or “foot and mouth disease” and “economic*” or “impact” or “cost-benefit”

• In addition 14 expert groups working in the field of the epidemiology and economics of FMD were consulted for additional publications

Methods

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• References identified were reviewed in order to develop an understanding of the level of knowledge of FMD impacts in a smallholder system • Articles written in English or Spanish were included.

• Articles were retained if they reported either original research or reviewed aspects of FMD economic impact.

Methods

• Loss of milk production • Loss of draught power • Lower weight gains •Dead animals

• Use of sub-optimal breeds •Denied access to markets both local and international

• Lower fertility • Change in the herd or flock structure

• Vaccines • Vaccine delivery • Movement control • Diagnostic tests

Visible Losses

Invisible Losses

Additional Costs

Lost Foregone

Expenditure and reactions Losses

FMD Impact

Impact caused by FMD

Impact caused by human reaction

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The results are broken down into different levels:

• What can we say from a national and regional level in terms of where FMD is endemic and where are the smallholders?

• What data and information do we have on the impacts of the disease in smallholder systems?

• What biological information is available on FMD in smallholder systems?

Results - FMD and smallholders

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Density of susceptible species

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Density of poor people dependent on livestock

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Studies on household impact of FMD

Source: 1Young et al., 2012; Shankar et al 2012; 2Rast et al., 2010 ; 3Barasa et al., 2008; 4 Ferrari et al 2012

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Impact of diseases for pastoralists in Kenya (Onono, 2013, Lyons’), Nigeria (Suleiman, unpublished), SE Asia (OIE)

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• Nick Lyons’ work in Kenya provides strong quantitative evidence of impact in dairy systems

• Abubakar Suleiman, working on CBPP in Nigeria, has also picked up FMD as being of importance in Fulani systems in the north

• Ongoing work in SE Asia coordinated by OIE • Plus a range of other anecdotes and data in the

process of being analysed

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• Based on observations of outbreaks and reports from case studies, pastoralists in Eastern Africa often experienced more than one outbreak a year (67% of herds affected each year)

• Such high incidences are not unusual in endemic countries across Africa and Asia, (McLaws, 2012)

• In a cross-sectional survey in rural Tanzania, 80-90% of households reported that they had experienced an outbreak within the last year and FMD was ranked as the second most important livestock disease

Frequency of outbreaks

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And what can we say about the gaps on impact?

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Major gap

• As far as we are aware there have been no published studies on the economic impacts of FMD on: • Small ruminants

• Pigs

• Sero surveillance studies indicates the levels of infections in small ruminants, there appears to be no such data on pigs

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Why is this important – we have uninformed debates

• FMD control in endemic countries is often deemed a lesser priority by governments and international funding agencies

• Some have argued that, in Southern Africa, only wealthy farms with export potential benefit from FMD free status (Scoones et al., 2010)

• Others have stated that a significant proportion of the benefits of international export filter down through the supply chain to low-income households (Perry et al., 2003)

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Conclusions

• There are limited data and studies on FMD impact in smallholder settings for cattle in Africa and Asia - there are major gaps in our knowledge

• Everything currently available indicates that FMD is important to smallholders

• Yet the narrative is weak due to the lack of consistency and frequency of studies

• Given the disease is highly infectious and causes health problems, plus the people who are smallholders depend on markets for their existence it is logical that it would be important in endemic countries

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Recommedations

• There is a need for improved scientific measurement of the existence of FMD in smallholder systems, and of the measures taken by these farmers to prevent the disease and to treat animals affected.

• There is also a need to detail how these farmers manage with regards market access during outbreaks and if their livestock activities are impacted by trade restrictions.

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Recommedations

• These data need to be collected, captured and analysed a systematic way

• We need to move from uninformed debates on the importance of FMD towards reasoned agreements of rationalised use of resource to reduce the FMD burdens

• We as scientists need to give smallholder farmers clarity and guidance on what value we can add to their lives

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Acknowledgement of Experts consulted