Assessment of the cost effectiveness of compulsory testing of introduced animals and bulk tank milk testing for bovine viral diarrhea in Japan

ISODA, Norikazu; ASANO, Akihiro; ICHIJO, Michiru; OHNO, Hiroshi; SATO, Kazuhiko; OKAMOTO, Hirokazu; NAKAO, Shigeru; KATO, Hajime; SAITO, Kazuma; ITO, Naoki; USUI, Akira; TAKAYAMA, Hiroaki; SAKODA, Yoshihiro

This study revealed that a certain proportion of infected cattle could not be removed from the entire population even by monitoring with a highly sensitive test for a long time. This might be due to the retention of PI animals as results of false-negative diagnoses or PI calf delivery from non-PI dams. The prevalence of BVD in cattle decreased to 0.02% in Switzerland and to 0.03% in Germany but could not reach zero [11, 40] . Given the results of the BVD eradication campaign from field data in these two countries, although the goal should be complete eradication, we need to adjust control measures toward a realistic goal for most of the farmers and stakeholders so as to keep motivations for the implementation high. Therefore, the degree of cost effectiveness, rather than possibility of BVD eradication, would become their major concern.