Brucellosis Eradication Budget Proposals

Author : Bryan Wilson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781124882277
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (822 download)

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Download or read book Regional Economic Impacts of Bovine Brucellosis Under New Federal Regulations written by Bryan Wilson and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A national bovine brucellosis eradication program was initiated in the US in 1934. The prevalence of brucellosis in cattle herds has since been reduced from 11.5% to .0001%, at a cost of $3.5 billion. Elk and bison in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA) are the only remaining natural reservoir for brucellosis in the US, and are the source of recent outbreaks in cattle. Brucellosis eradication efforts are therefore shifting emphasis from cattle-to-cattle transmission to wildlife-to-cattle transmission. USDA-APHIS recently proposed changes to the national brucellosis eradication policy that would focus labor and capital resources on the GYA, rather than the entire state of Wyoming. The purpose of my research is to estimate and compare the economic impacts of a brucellosis outbreak under APHIS's historical versus revised brucellosis eradication policy. I first use enterprise budget analysis to estimate the direct impacts of a brucellosis outbreak on cattle producers' profits. Changes in profit then serve as "first round effects" in an input/output analysis of Wyoming's economy, which indicates how direct impacts to the cattle industry ripple through the state's economy. Results reveal that a producer whose herd contracts brucellosis loses $40,000 to $234,000. A producer whose herd is quarantined because of possible exposure to an infected herd loses $2,000 to $8,000. Regional models reveal that a brucellosis outbreak, and associated cattle testing, injects revenue into Wyoming's economy and stimulates output and employment (assuming federal agencies provide compensation). APHIS's revised eradication policy reduces the number of cattle tested during an outbreak, and therefore reduces the magnitude of revenues injected into Wyoming's economy. Although my results suggest brucellosis has a positive impact on Wyoming's economy, these benefits come at the expense of federal agencies and taxpayers. Therefore, from a national perspective (and an individual cattle producer's perspective) brucellosis is economically costly.