Evaluation of a novel communication and consultation skills model (WISE COACH) on dog owner perceptions of veterinarians and projected spending on veterinary care.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of a novel communication and consultation skills model (WISE COACH [WC]) on dog owner perceptions of veterinarians and projected spending on veterinary care. SAMPLE: 1,200 US dog owners who had visited a veterinarian within the prior 18 months. PROCEDURES: Video recordings of 2 staged client consultations were made, with the veterinarian following the WC recommendations in one video and not following them in the other (control). Participants were randomly assigned to view one of the videos and completed an online survey to assess their perceptions and projected spending. Qualitative responses were coded to identify themes. RESULTS: The veterinarian was rated significantly higher in the WC video than in the control video for the characteristics first impression, skilled and knowledgeable, cares about me, cares about my pet, and communicates clearly, and was rated significantly lower for the characteristic rushed or abrupt. Participants who viewed the WC video were significantly more likely to follow the veterinarian's recommendations, return to see the veterinarian, and recommend the veterinarian. They were also approximately 1.4 times as likely to approve the full recommended treatment plan, and their projected total spending was approximately 15% higher than projected spending for participants who viewed the control video. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Results showed improved client perceptions, client retention, quality of patient care, and financial metrics when the veterinarian followed the WC recommendations. Further study is needed to determine whether this model may also improve veterinarian well-being by improving client relationships and decreasing resistance to recommendations.

An estimation of the financial consequences of reducing pig aggression.

Animal welfare scientists have accumulated knowledge and developed interventions to improve livestock welfare, but these are poorly adopted in commercial practice. Animal welfare interventions are rarely tested for economic viability and this limits their uptake. This study employs Stochastic Partial Budgeting (SPB) to determine the viability of animal welfare improvements. Aggression between pigs is used as an example because there is a large literature base from which to draw interventions, and the problem has persisted for decades without resolution. Costs and benefits of three interventions to control aggression (pre-weaning socialisation, synthetic maternal pheromones and large social groups) were estimated by reviewing the academic and industry literature and by conducting a survey of sixteen pig farmers. The net effects were compared to farmers' willingness to pay (WTP) for interventions to reduce aggression as identified by recent research. Results are consistent with prior research which indicates that improving animal welfare generally comes at a cost to producers. Nevertheless, pre-weaning socialisation resulted in a neutral or positive net effect 38% of the time and should be central to campaigns promoting the control of aggression in the industry. Exposing pigs to synthetic maternal pheromones did not improve profitability but the net costs were small and within the realms of WTP for a sub-group of farmers with animal welfare goals. The net costs of converting existing buildings in order to house pigs in large social groups were beyond the realms of farmers' WTP. The approach adopted in this study, of combining SPB with WTP from the sector, should be extended to other animal welfare issues.

The dairy sector in the Azores Islands: possibilities and main constraints towards increased added value.

The Azores archipelago is the most suitable region for dairy production in Portugal, representing 30% of the overall Portuguese dairy production. It has a production system characterized by an average milk yield of 6216 kg/cow/year, and the predominance of pasture-based feeding and cows that have longer productive lives and lower incidence of metabolic/production diseases, such as acidosis or mastitis. The biggest problem with the Azores Islands dairy sector is the cost of transport, as the main markets are located in continental Portugal, over 1500 km away, and local dairy products have to compete with dairy products produced in mainland Portugal and in the rest of the European Union. Herein, the evolution of the dairy sector in the Azores Islands from 2007 to 2017 is presented. A SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) analysis was performed to find potential solutions to increase the value of the Azorean dairy sector. The most relevant solution considered was the valorization of the dairy production through three major aspects: higher milk quality, namely, better organoleptic properties; lower carbon footprint (not considering transport costs); and higher levels of animal welfare. Three examples are shown of such valorization: protected denomination of origin (PDO) cheeses, the "happy cows" program, and the production of an organic milk, from the Terceira Island. Some of these programs are relatively recent, so, it will be interesting to see how their sales and acceptance by consumers evolve, particularly under the current economic framework.

The epidemiology of fighting in group-housed laboratory mice.

Injurious home-cage aggression (fighting) in mice affects both animal welfare and scientific validity. It is arguably the most common potentially preventable morbidity in mouse facilities. Existing literature on mouse aggression almost exclusively examines territorial aggression induced by introducing a stimulus mouse into the home-cage of a singly housed mouse (i.e. the resident/intruder test). However, fighting occurring in mice living together in long-term groups under standard laboratory housing conditions has barely been studied. We performed a point-prevalence epidemiological survey of fighting at a research institution with an approximate 60,000 cage census. A subset of cages was sampled over the course of a year and factors potentially influencing home-cage fighting were recorded. Fighting was almost exclusively seen in group-housed male mice. Approximately 14% of group-housed male cages were observed with fighting animals in brief behavioral observations, but only 14% of those cages with fighting had skin injuries observable from cage-side. Thus simple cage-side checks may be missing the majority of fighting mice. Housing system (the combination of cage ventilation and bedding type), genetic background, time of year, cage location on the rack, and rack orientation in the room were significant risk factors predicting fighting. Of these predictors, only bedding type is easily manipulated to mitigate fighting. Cage ventilation and rack orientation often cannot be changed in modern vivaria, as they are baked in by cookie-cutter architectural approaches to facility design. This study emphasizes the need to invest in assessing the welfare costs of new housing and husbandry systems before implementing them.

Economic effects of policy options restricting antimicrobial use for high risk cattle placed in U.S. feedlots.

The rising public health threat of antimicrobial resistance, the influence of food service companies, as well as the overall lack of positive image of using medical products in intensive farming are major drivers curbing antimicrobial use. In the future, government policies may affect practices of antimicrobial use in beef production in feedlots, a prominent current user of antimicrobials in animal agriculture, but also the agricultural industry generating the highest cash receipt in the U.S. Our objective was to estimate the cost effect from the following policies in feedlots: 1) using antimicrobials for disease prevention, control, and treatment; 2) using antimicrobials only for treatment of disease; and 3) not using antimicrobials for any reason. We modelled a typical U.S. feedlot, where high risk cattle may be afflicted by diseases requiring antimicrobial therapy, namely respiratory diseases, liver abscesses and lameness. We calculated the net revenue loss under each policy of antimicrobial use restriction. With moderate disease incidence, the median net revenue loss was $66 and $96 per animal entering the feedlot, for not using antimicrobials for disease prevention and control, or not using any antimicrobials, respectively, compared to using antimicrobials for disease prevention, control, and treatment. Losses arose mainly from an increase of fatality and morbidity rates, almost doubling for respiratory diseases in the case of antimicrobial use restrictions. In the case of antimicrobial use prohibition, decreasing the feeder cattle price by 9%, or alternatively, increasing the slaughter cattle price by 6.3%, would offset the net revenue losses for the feedlot operator. If no alternatives to antimicrobial therapy for prevention, control and treatment of current infectious diseases are implemented, policies that economically incentivize adoption of non-antimicrobial prevention and control strategies for infectious diseases would be necessary to maintain animal welfare and the profitability of beef production while simultaneously curbing antimicrobial use.

Mission impossible or mission accomplished: Do zoo organizational missions influence conservation practices?

Conservation is an important organizational focus for zoos and aquariums. Organizational identity theory predicts a relationship between what is central to organizations, such as their mission statements, and their strategic activities. Based on this theory, we tested how organizational missions relate to their conservation strategies and practices. Tax forms and websites provided data from 173 zoos and 38 aquariums in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in North America. We analyzed conservation mission strength, organizational characteristics, and project features with dependent variables representing the depth of organizational conservation commitments: amount of grants zoos funded, number of partner organizations, and number of projects per zoo. On tax forms, the average amount of total conservation grants donated to partner organizations per zoo was over $650,000, while the average number of partners reported on the tax forms was two. The content analysis of websites revealed an average of 14 conservation partners and 10 projects per zoo. Negative binomial regression models were significant. The financial analysis revealed that only the number of zoo personnel, as a surrogate for organization size, significantly predicted the amount of zoos' conservation grants. Website analyses found increasing budgets, organizational involvement, and geographic reach of the projects predicted increasing numbers of conservation projects and partnerships. However, our findings did not support the hypothesized relationship-strength of organizational mission did not predict strategy and activities. Zoos could do more to strategically activate their organizational identities and conservation missions to achieve their conservation goals.

The pros and cons of animal health harmonisation.

It has been argued that the global harmonisation of animal health procedures, regulations and responses will improve animal health and provide economic benefits. Harmonisation of regulations can be driven by trade reform, such as multilateral or bilateral agreements, or as a response to private quality assurance programmes. At an international level, trade reform is currently focused on reducing the costs of trading between countries. To achieve this, bilateral agreements, where possible, are harmonising regulations throughout all sectors of the economy. However, as with any new developments, there are both positive and negative outcomes that should be explored to understand the net effect of these changes on animal health, the economy and society. In this article, the authors debate the economic foundations of harmonisation, explore alternative methods to achieve it, and discuss its pros and cons to more fully understand the opportunity costs from countries adopting the same level of risk to animal health.

Il a souvent été avancé qu'en matière de santé animale, l'harmonisation des procédures, des réglementations et des interventions à l'échelle mondiale améliore la situation zoosanitaire globale tout en apportant des bénéfices économiques aux pays. Une telle harmonisation réglementaire peut être le fruit d'une réforme du commerce, notamment par le biais d'accords multilatéraux ou bilatéraux, ou bien constituer une réponse aux programmes d'assurance qualité privés. Au niveau international, la réforme du commerce est actuellement centrée sur la réduction des coûts qu'il entraîne pour les pays. Dans cette perspective, des accords bilatéraux sont conclus chaque fois que possible afin d'harmoniser les réglementations dans tous les secteurs de l'économie. Néanmoins, comme dans toute évolution nouvelle, il en résulte des retombées aussi bien positives que négatives qu'il convient d'analyser afin de bien comprendre l'incidence nette de ces changements sur la santé animale, l'économie et la société. Après avoir débattu des fondements économiques de l'harmonisation, les auteurs examinent les méthodes alternatives qui permettent d'obtenir le même résultat ; ils font aussi le point sur les avantages et les inconvénients de l'harmonisation afin de mieux comprendre le coût d'opportunité qu'elle induit pour les pays adoptant le même niveau de risque en santé animale.

Se ha postulado que la armonización mundial de los procedimientos, reglamentos y respuestas en materia de sanidad animal redundará en un mejor estado sanitario de los animales y reportará beneficios económicos. El impulso para proceder a una armonización reglamentaria puede tener su origen en una reforma del comercio, a raíz por ejemplo de acuerdos multilaterales o bilaterales, o responder a programas privados de garantía de la calidad. A escala internacional, la reforma de los mecanismos comerciales apunta ahora básicamente a reducir los costos del comercio entre países. Para lograrlo se suscriben acuerdos bilaterales que, cuando es posible, entrañan una armonización reglamentaria en todos los sectores de la economía. Sin embargo, como ocurre con todas las novedades, ello tiene repercusiones positivas y negativas, que conviene analizar para aprehender el efecto neto de estos cambios en la sanidad animal, la economía y la sociedad. Los autores examinan los fundamentos económicos de la armonización, plantean métodos alternativos para llevarla adelante y dan cuenta de sus ventajas e inconvenientes para conocer mejor los costos de oportunidad que trae consigo la adopción de un mismo nivel de riesgo zoosanitario por parte de los países.

New York State dairy farmers' perceptions of antibiotic use and resistance: A qualitative interview study.

Antibiotic resistance is a global problem affecting both human and animal health. Ensuring the strategic and effective use of antibiotics is paramount to combatting the emergence and spread of resistance. This study explored New York State (NYS) dairy farmers' perceptions regarding antibiotic use in dairy farming and antibiotic resistance. Dairy farmers' perceptions were assessed through semi-structured, in-person interviews. Twenty interviews with farm owners and/or managers of 15 conventional and five USDA certified organic dairy farms with 40 to 2,300 lactating cows were conducted. Thematic analysis was used to assess, compare and contrast transcripts for farmers' characterization of their beliefs, values, and concerns. Conventional dairy farmers had a low level of concern about the possible impacts of on-farm antibiotic resistance on human health and believed their antibiotic use was already judicious. Generally, they believed their cattle's health would suffer if antibiotic use were further curtailed. Conventional farmers expressed frustration over the possibility of more stringent governmental, milk cooperative, buyer, or marketer requirements for antibiotic use and associated animal welfare in the future. They attributed expanding regulations in part to misinformed consumer preferences, that farmers felt were influenced by the marketing of organic dairy products. Organic dairy farmers were generally more concerned about issues related to antibiotic resistance than conventional farmers. Both conventional and organic farmers placed emphasis on disease prevention through herd health management rather than treatment. In conclusion, the conventional NYS dairy farmers in this study were skeptical of the need for and benefits of reduced antibiotic use on their dairy farms. Interventions for farmers, delivered by a trusted source such as a veterinarian, that provide training about proper antibiotic use practices and information of possible financial benefits of refining antibiotic use may hold promise.

A value chain analysis of interventions to control production diseases in the intensive pig production sector.

Value chain analysis (VCA) calculated the financial effects on food chain actors of interventions to improve animal health and welfare in the intensive pig sector. Two interventions to reduce production diseases were studied. A generic chain diagram of linkages between stakeholders and value-added dimensions was designed. Data on structure and financial performance were collected for the sector. The production parameters and financial effects of the interventions were then described to illustrate impact on the supply chain. The effects of the interventions were also assessed at market level using economic welfare analysis. The sectors in Finland and the UK are small in farm numbers and few companies produced much of the output in a largely vertically-integrated structure. The most beneficial intervention in financial terms to farmers was improved hygiene in pig fattening (around +50% in gross margin). It was calculated to reduce the consumer price for pig meat by up to 5% when applied at large, whereas for improved management measures, it would reduce consumer price by less than 0.5%. However, the latter added value also through food quality attributes. We show that good hygiene and animal care can add value. However, evaluation of the financial and social viability of the interventions is needed to decide what interventions are adopted. The structure of supply chains influences which policy measures could be applied. Of the two interventions, improved pig hygiene had the largest potential to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The studied interventions can also provide new business opportunities to farms, slaughterhouses and food sector companies. More evidence is needed to support public policies and business decision-making in the sector. For this, evidence on consumer attitudes to production diseases is needed. Nevertheless, the study makes an important contribution by showing how improvements in health and welfare benefit the whole chain.

A novel approach to welfare interventions in problem multi-cat households.

BACKGROUND: Thousands of injured, stray and relinquished cats are received at the RSPCA Greater Manchester Animal Hospital each year. A significant and challenging proportion of these cats are confiscated from multicat households by RSPCA Inspectors, due to the owners' inability to care for them. These households share many characteristics of animal hoarding, including poor owner compliance with suggested welfare improvements and recidivism. The relatively poor adoption potential of animals from such households are a perennial problem for the charity. The aim of this study was to determine if offering female cat neutering assistance to multi-cat owners significantly improved colony welfare. RESULTS: Ten multicat households with a history of public complaint to the RSPCA were recruited. An RSPCA veterinary surgeon (VS) initially assessed the overall welfare of each household's cat population, individual cat welfare and the living environment. All entire female cats aged over 8 weeks were neutered and basic animal care education provided. Follow up visits were completed two and 12 months later to reassess welfare parameters and population numbers. The total number of cats was 176 across ten households (range 7-33, median 16). All owners consented to having all entire female cats spayed. At the first visit, mean individual cat welfare scores ranged from 5.4-8.7/ 16 across the 10 households, where 16 represented best possible welfare. Overall household mean welfare scores were significantly improved at both the 2 month and 12 month revisits (p = 0.011 and p = 0.01 respectively) when compared to the initial visits. By the end of the study period, three out of the ten households had voluntarily relinquished all of their cats, and overall there was a 40% reduction in the number of cats. CONCLUSIONS: Animal hoarding has previously been an intractable welfare concern with little evidence informing intervention techniques. These results show that positive veterinary engagement on site, focused on preventative care and population control, can yield significant improvement in welfare scoring systems in relatively short timescales. Promptly collecting and neutering all female cats at a site, combined with advice and support, show promise in improving welfare.

Physiological and economic benefits of abandoning invasive surgical procedures and enhancing animal welfare in swine production.

Food-animal welfare is a major ethical and social concern. Pork is the most consumed meat worldwide, with over a billion pigs slaughtered annually. Most of these pigs routinely undergo painful surgical procedures (surgical castration, tail docking, teeth clipping), which farmers often reluctant to avoid, claiming it would increase cost and reduce production efficiency. Herein, this study indicates that these procedures compromise pigs' health and condition. Replacing surgical castration with immunocastration, avoiding tail docking and teeth clipping, and providing environmental enrichment, resulted in significant increase in weight gain, lowered risks for injuries and death, and reduced saliva and hair cortisol, both biomarkers for stress. Testosterone and DHEA analyses confirmed that immunocastration was an effective alternative to surgical castration. Economic models for the entire US swine market revealed that following across-the-board acceptance of this management, pork meat price is expected to drop, while the total annual social welfare (combined consumer and producer surplus) is expected to increase by $US 1.48 to 1.92 billion. In conclusion, sustainable swine farming management can be beneficial for both animals and farmers. Applying such welfare-friendly management is expected to reduce stress, enhance piglet/pig welfare and production, and improve the economics of swine operations in the global agro-food system.

Consumer attitudes towards animal welfare and their willingness to pay.

The interest of European consumers towards animal welfare can be influenced by several variables, both related to the consumers themselves and to the different countries of the EU. In order to assess animal welfare at farm level, it is essential to develop animal-based measures in accordance with the animals' actual welfare state in terms of their behaviour, health and physiology. The search for valid and reliable indicators is a key objective of several research programs especially for assessing welfare at farm level and the tools may include surveys addressed to farmers. However, there is a need to guarantee financial support for farmers who breed animals in accordance with such welfare conditions, to cover their additional costs. The aim of the study was to investigate the eating habits of Italian consumers regarding meat consumption linked to their knowledge of animal welfare and to their willingness to pay. We investigated consumers' understanding of animal welfare using a questionnaire (based on a list of twenty-three closed-ended questions) designed for collecting data from large numbers of respondents and multivariate statistical analysis. The data in our study showed that the variable with the greatest influence on purchase price was the place of meat purchase. As regards level of education, it appears that people with a high level of education are more concerned about animal welfare and, consequently, are willing to spend a higher price when buying meat. Consumer attention to the animal-welfare issue is on the rise and, in parallel with this growth, there is also a greater willingness to pay, i.e. a surcharge for the products obtained in the respect of animal welfare. This growth is influenced by the awareness and knowledge of the characteristics of animal welfare.

Consumer attitudes towards production diseases in intensive production systems.

Many members of the public and important stakeholders operating at the upper end of the food chain, may be unfamiliar with how food is produced, including within modern animal production systems. The intensification of production is becoming increasingly common in modern farming. However, intensive systems are particularly susceptible to production diseases, with potentially negative consequences for farm animal welfare (FAW). Previous research has demonstrated that the public are concerned about FAW, yet there has been little research into attitudes towards production diseases, and their approval of interventions to reduce these. This research explores the public's attitudes towards, and preferences for, FAW interventions in five European countries (Finland, Germany, Poland, Spain and the UK). An online survey was conducted for broilers (n = 789), layers (n = 790) and pigs (n = 751). Data were analysed by means of Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA, exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The results suggest that the public have concerns regarding intensive production systems, in relation to FAW, naturalness and the use of antibiotics. The most preferred interventions were the most "proactive" interventions, namely improved housing and hygiene measures. The least preferred interventions were medicine-based, which raised humane animal care and food safety concerns amongst respondents. The results highlighted the influence of the identified concerns, perceived risks and benefits on attitudes and subsequent behavioural intention, and the importance of supply chain stakeholders addressing these concerns in the subsequent communications with the public.

Distinguishing protest responses in contingent valuation: A conceptualization of motivations and attitudes behind them.

The percentage of protesters in contingent valuation surveys is substantial-about 20% across many studies. This paper seeks to clarify the motivations behind protest responses. In addition, the question whether the estimation of willingness to pay (WTP) is more biased by the exclusion or inclusion of protest bids is yet undecided. Methodological improvements are difficult for three reasons: motivations behind protest responses are largely unclear, definitions of protest differ between studies and often only participants who state a zero WTP are asked for their reasons. Our survey on farm animal welfare (n = 1335) provides detailed motivations, two definitions and includes debriefing of all participants for their WTP. We find that protest bids are not a refusal to answer, they are neither irrational nor driven by lack of understanding. Quite the contrary, a large part of participants is directly motivated by moral reasons. Furthermore, protest responses are not coupled to a zero WTP. In our sample, only 8% out of 32% protesting participants had a zero WTP. Only a small fraction of zero bids (0.4%) are true WTP-statements, i.e. respondents were satisfied with the status quo. This finding has important implications for existing WTP-estimates which might be biased. Finally, we provide detailed estimates of the WTP for animal welfare issues by including and excluding different types of protesters and outliers.

Consumer Attitudes Toward Animal Welfare-Friendly Products and Willingness to Pay: Exploration of Mexican Market Segments.

The study aim was to identify consumer segmentation based on nonhuman animal welfare (AW) attitudes and their relationship with demographic features and willingness to pay (WTP) for welfare-friendly products (WFP) in Mexico. Personal interviews were conducted with 843 Mexican consumers who stated they purchased most of the animal products in their home. Respondents were selected using a quota sampling method with age, gender, education, and origin as quota control variables. The multivariate analysis suggested there were three clusters or consumer profiles labeled "skeptical," "concerned," and "ethical," which helped explain the association between AW attitudes, some demographic variables, and WTP for WFP. This study is one of the first to address consumer profiling in Latin America, and the findings could have implications for the commercialization of WFP. Hence, customers should receive information to consider welfare innovations when deciding to purchase animal products. The growth of the WFP food market establishes an element of a far more multifaceted phenomenon of sustainable consumption and support of a new paradigm called responsible marketing in emerging markets such as Mexico.

Willingness to pay and moral stance: The case of farm animal welfare in Germany.

This study examines the impact of ethical attitude on the willingness to pay for farm animal welfare improvement in Germany. Little is known about the pluralism of moral attitudes that may exist behind farm animal welfare issues and its relationship to customers' willingness to pay for it. Via a large survey (n = 1334) we are able to identify different moral dimensions by employing validated scales. We find utilitarian alongside deontological attitudes as well as a mixture of both. Thus, presupposing a standard moral attitude is too simple. This has implications for decision-making on markets, since the implicit normative assumptions of a utilitarian position in economics has to be critically assessed. Furthermore, we asked for the willingness to pay for various aspects of farm animal welfare improvement. We find significant positive correlations between willingness to pay and environmental concern, altruism and less apathy. Measured in Euro, a higher environmental concern has the strongest effect on WTP for all five moral scales. Outliers with higher bids are willing to pay almost five times for any aspect of farm animal welfare than the rest of the sample. A more detailed analysis of outliers demonstrates that market-based approaches have restrictions in capturing certain moral values. Moreover, the motivations behind zero bids reveal that moral concerns outweigh indifference towards animal welfare by far. This has implications how policy can be designed to serve people's demand for higher animal welfare standards. Two other findings are of interest. First, we find a very high number of people assigning an intrinsic value to animals (90%). Second, zero bids and outlier treatment in WTP-studies deserves more careful consideration, since WTP-estimates are easily skewed by excluding these groups.

A framework for estimating society's economic welfare following the introduction of an animal disease: The case of Johne's disease.

Animal diseases are global issues affecting the productivity and financial profitability of affected farms. Johne's disease is distributed on farms worldwide and is an endemic contagious bacterial infection in ruminants caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis. In cattle, the clinical disease manifests itself as chronic enteritis resulting in reduced production, weight loss, and eventually death. Johne's disease is prevalent in the UK, including Scotland. Direct costs and losses associated with Johne's disease have been estimated in previous research, confirming an important economic impact of the disease in UK herds. Despite this, the distributional impact of Johne's disease among milk consumers and producers in Scotland has not been estimated. In this paper, we evaluate the change in society's economic welfare, namely to dairy producers (i.e. infected and uninfected herds) and milk consumers in Scotland induced by the introduction of Johne's disease in the national Scottish dairy herd. At the national-level, we conclude that the economic burden falls mainly on producers of infected herds and, to a lesser extent, milk consumers, while producers of uninfected herds benefit from the presence of Johne's. An infected producer's loss per cow is approximately two times larger in magnitude than that of an uninfected producer's gain. Such economic welfare estimates are an important comparison of the relative costs of national herd prevalence and the wider economic welfare implications for both producers and consumers. This is particularly important from a policy, public good, cost sharing, and human health perspective. The economic welfare framework presented in this paper can be applied to other diseases to examine the relative burden of society's economic welfare of alternative livestock disease scenarios. In addition, the sensitivity analysis evaluates uncertainty in economic welfare given limited data and uncertainty in the national herd prevalence, and other input parameters, associated with Johne's disease in Scotland. Therefore, until the prevalence of Johne's is better understood, the full economic cost to Scottish dairy herds remains uncertain but in the meantime the sensitivity analysis evaluates the robustness of economic welfare to such uncertainties.