Socioeconomic implications of biosecurity practices in small-scale dairy farms.

BACKGROUND: Biosecurity plays a crucial role in preventing contagious diseases and in increasing farm productivity. OBJECTIVE: To determine technical and economic biosecurity scores of farms, and to examine the associations between biosecurity practices (BP) and producers' socioeconomic characteristics. METHODS: The study was conducted on a total of 50 small-scale dairy farms that were randomly selected in Hatay, Turkey. A checklist consisting of 19 biosecurity practices was addressed to the farms. The technical and economic scoring systems were developed by the authors according to presence and cost of the each of the biosecurity practices. RESULTS: The mean of the technical and economic scores were found to be 9.30 and 17.04, respectively. 'Treatment of sick animals' (98%), 'vaccination against the most common contagious diseases' (90%), and 'barn lime' (86%) were found to be the most commonly used applications. 'Testing for the most common contagious diseases before buying' (10%) was used at the lowest rate. Significant differences were found among the groups regarding education level (<.05), income class (<.05), and herd size (<.01). Biosecurity scores were significantly positively correlated with herd size (<.05) and producers' education level (<.01). There were statistically significant associations between the producers' socioeconomic characteristics and some of the biosecurity practices. CONCLUSION: Training programs should be arranged to change the attitudes and perception of small-scale producers concerning poor biosecurity practices. In order to encourage producers to increase biosecurity scores, regulations regarding financial support and penalties could be quite useful at both the regional and national levels.