Empirical Study of Monthly Economic Losses Assessments for "Standard Unit Lockdown" Due to COVID-19.

Background: The pandemic of COVID-19 has been shaping economic developments of the world. From the standpoint of government measures to prevent and control the epidemic, the lockdown was widely used. It is essential to access the economic losses in a lockdown environment which will provide government administration with a necessary reference for decision making in controlling the epidemic. Methods: We introduce the concept of "standard unit incident" and an economic losses assessment methodology for both the standard and the assessed area. We build a "standard unit lockdown" economic losses assessment system and indicators to estimate the economic losses for the monthly lockdown. Using the comprehensive assessment system, the loss infected coefficient of monthly economic losses during lockdown in the 40 countries has been calculated to assess the economic losses by the entropy weighting method (EWM) with data from the CSMAR database and CDC website. Results: We observe that countries in North America suffered the most significant economic losses due to the epidemic, followed by South America and Europe, Asia and Africa, and Oceania and Antarctica suffered relatively minor economic losses. The top 10 countries for monthly economic losses during lockdown were the United States, India, Brazil, France, Turkey, Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and Germany. The United States suffered the greatest monthly economic losses under lockdown ($65.3 billion), roughly 1.5 times that of China, while Germany suffered the least ($56.4 billion), roughly 1.3 times that of China. Conclusion: Lockdown as a control and mitigation strategy has great impact on the economic development and causes huge economic losses. The economic impact due to the pandemic has varied widely among the 40 countries. It will be important to conduct further studies to compare and understand the differences and the reasons behind.

African swine fever outbreaks in China led to gross domestic product and economic losses.

African swine fever (ASF) is a fatal and highly infectious haemorrhagic disease that has spread to all provinces in China-the world's largest producer and consumer of pork. Here we use an input-output model, partial equilibrium theory and a substitution indicator approach for handling missing data to develop a systematic valuation framework for assessing economic losses caused by ASF outbreaks in China between August 2018 and July 2019. We show that the total economic loss accounts for 0.78% of China's gross domestic product in 2019, with impacts experienced in almost all economic sectors through links to the pork industry and a substantial decrease in consumer surplus. Scenario analyses demonstrate that the worst cases of pig production reduction and price increase would trigger 1.4% and 2.07% declines in gross domestic product, respectively. These findings demonstrate an urgent need for rapid ASF containment and prevention measures to avoid future outbreaks and economic declines.

Status and influencing factors of farmers' private investment in the prevention and control of sheep brucellosis in China: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Brucellosis is one of the most common zoonoses worldwide, causing direct losses to the livestock industry and threatening human health. Little is known about the status and factors affecting farmers' private investment in the prevention and control of sheep brucellosis in China. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: From April to October 2017, a cross-sectional, house-based study was conducted in 7 Chinese provinces. A total of 1037 households included in the study were analyzed. The average amount of private investment in the prevention and control of brucellosis was $0.73±0.54 per sheep. Multivariable analysis showed that factors facilitating private investment included older age of householder (OR = 1.07, 95%CI: 1.03-1.11), herd size >100 (OR = 2.49, 95%CI: 1.38-4.51), a higher percentage of income from sheep farming comparing to the total household income (OR = 1.14, 95%CI: 1.11-1.16), higher score of brucellosis knowledge (OR = 3.85, 95%CI: 1.40-10.51), actively learning related knowledge (OR = 2.98, 95%CI: 1.55-5.74), actively participating in related training courses (OR = 3.07, 95%CI: 1.52-6.18), care about other people's attitudes (OR = 1.75, 95%CI: 1.35-2.28), concern about the health of neighbors' livestock (OR = 1.75, 95%CI: 1.23-2.51). The analysis found a discouraging factor for private investment, supporting culling policy (OR = 0.67, 95%CI: 0.49-0.91). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In addition to providing interventions related to farmers' knowledge, attitudes and practices, guidance must be offered to help farmers understanding the importance of private investment in the prevention and control of brucellosis.