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From the article it appears that some of the reluctance to vaccinate arises from the potential for loss of income due to temporarily decreased milk production.
by doodlebugging 6y ago
From the article it appears that some of the reluctance to vaccinate arises from the potential for loss of income due to temporarily decreased milk production. This lasts for a period of weeks. The other sticking point may be the potential for income loss due to vaccine-caused late-term abortions.
Perhaps it would be useful for the Indian government to educate the farmers about the benefits of vaccination via a mobile phone ad-based campaign. Emphasize that vaccination only needs to be done once for each animal and they are protected for life.
In addition, to manage the reluctance of individual farmers to vaccinate based on potential income loss, offer a temporary financial subsidy based on the local price of milk that would be sold. This might require some knowledge about how milk production is typically affected so that adequate payment schedules can be calculated based on strong data about production declines and their usual durations.
Since the vaccine can cause late-term abortions which also affect the financial viability of the farmer's operations a subsidy can be created to compensate for that loss and could take the form of a one-time payment of the projected value of a calf that would be made to a farmer who can demonstrate a loss post-vaccination. This would encourage farmers to maintain a relationship with local veterinarians at the same time since the veterinarian would verify the loss. As a result, herd health in the country could improve significantly in a few years.
All of this should end up being a temporary program since you will eventually run out of cattle to subsidize when you reach the point where all calves are vaccinated at birth. Preventing this from birth eliminates the need for the milk subsidy and for the abortion subsidy so if you can get strong buy-in from the cattle owners it may be possible to eliminate this problem quickly.
Vaccination efforts should focus first on heifers since they are the ones suffering the abortions and the decrease in milk production. The secondary focus should be on new-born calves of both sexes. The tertiary focus should be on bulls.
By focusing on heifers up front, your program costs should scale back to regular vaccination administration and animal tracking to insure that most cattle are protected.
I own no cattle myself, I am a geophysicist, but I grew up in rural Texas and have worked a lot of cows, docked and castrated sheep, raised chickens for eggs, and some family members currently raise cattle. I don't see the inability to cull as a huge hurdle since this looks like a solvable problem. Obviously if you could just cull the sick cattle from the herd then the problem is eliminated more quickly but in the absence of that option go with the tools you have available. It may take longer but with appropriate buy-in from the cattle raisers after a comprehensive education campaign you can end this in a few years. Their target date is 2025 and that looks reasonable. Maybe they are already doing this. The article doesn't say with certainty but it is obvious they are committing significant money to the effort. hopefully they can direct it to the right part of the problem.
- duxup 6y ago>All of this should end up being a temporary program since you will eventually run out of cattle to subsidize when you reach the point where all calves are vaccinated at birth. Preventing this from birth eliminates the need for the milk subsidy and for the abortion subsidy so if you can get strong buy-in from the cattle owners it may be possible to eliminate this problem quickly. I'm not sure about a program being temporary. The article describes even efforts in the west as an ongoing effort. They're more successful... but they're still actively having to address the problem, and thus haven't simply solved it via a big effort. Not to say the west couldn't be doing better / missing something, but it seems like this is an issue that isn't so much something you can swoop in and solve and just vaccinate after that.
- doodlebugging 6y agoAny program only lasts as long as funding for it exists. It seems easy enough to design the program so that it has a defined start and end goal and target end date. The Yellowstone herd in the US is a special case. According to USDA numbers released this month, the US is free of cattle and swine brucellosis in all 50 states. The program has been successful in eradication with the exception of an occasional case in the Yellowstone area. Work is in progress to ensure containment of cases which mainly seem to affect the elk in the park but also affect bison. [USGS Brucellosis](https://www.usgs.gov/centers/norock/science/brucellosis?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects https://www.usgs.gov/centers/norock/science/brucellosis?qt-s...) Since the program to eradicate began in 1954, brucellosis in domestic cattle and swine has been eradicated in all 50 states as noted by the USDA. Spending has ramped down accordingly to the point where less than $1 million dollars was needed in 2010. [USDA Brucellosis](https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/sa_animal_disease_information/ct_status_of_eradication_programs https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/sa_an...) There are active monitoring efforts in place since cattle are routinely trucked across country to pasture on better grass and since cattle do come across the border from Mexico, which still has a problem with control in some areas. With that in mind, it took the years from 1954 to 2010 for it to be officially eliminated.
- wolfretcrap 6y ago