9th Advisory Committee Meeting of the PACE Programme - 2

CBPP is a disease of economic importance because of the high morbidity and mortality losses it causes to cattle. The financial implications of these losses are of great significance to both cattle owners and to the nation. Control of CBPP is therefore important as a way to salvage the losses and increase the incomes of cattle owners. Before a control program is implemented however, it is important to evaluate the economic impacts of CBPP and determine whether a control program would be economically viable. This analysis was undertaken to evaluate the economic cost of CBPP and estimate returns to investments in its control in a sample of twelve countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Tanzania and Uganda). A spreadsheet economic model was developed in Microsoft Excel and CBPP epidemiological and economic data obtained from a number of field studies were used to model the impacts of CBPP under endemic and epidemic conditions. Economic cost was evaluated in terms of the direct and indirect production losses attributed to morbidity and mortality plus the disease control expenditures. Production losses comprised of cattle deaths and reductions in beef, milk and animal power. The estimated monetary value of production losses averaged 2.3 million Euros per country for endemic CBPP and 3.8 million Euros for epidemic CBPP. Estimated economic cost averaged 3.4 million and 5.3 million Euros for endemic and epidemic CBPP respectively. Ethiopia, Kenya and Mali each incur economic costs in excess of 5 million Euros. Benefit-cost analysis was used to compare the value of the incremental benefits with the value of the incremental costs in order to establish whether or not CBPP control is economically viable. Effective control of CBPP is economically viable with average net benefits that exceed 1.2 million Euros per country in the case of endemic CBPP and 2.3 million Euros in the case of epidemic CBPP. Indeed, control of CBPP during epidemic outbreaks has potential for greater benefits as the returns to investment are greater than those obtained from endemic CBPP.