An economic analysis of the threat of an exotic disease on agriculture: The case of sheep pox in Western Australia

Authors

Nhu Che, Agriculture Western Australia
Tom Kompas, Australian National University

Publication Date

6-1999

Series Number

Miscellaneous publication 20/99

Publisher

Agriculture Western Australia

City

Perth

ISSN

1326-4168

Abstract

Sheep pox is an acute disease that causes heavy losses due to high sheep mortality, costly eradication programs and ongoing problems with trade restrictions for many countries around the world. Australia until now has been unaffected, and although the risk of disease entry may be very slight, one case of sheep pox outbreak could cost the Western Australian economy as much as $50 million in damages, mostly from the trade disruption losses ( over the 21-month period of trading bans). The introduction of a Serology Test Program may reduce that amount by $35 million due to a shortening of the period in which trade is banned to six months.

We assume that the benefit of a quarantine and surveillance system is the value it can save in terms of the potential cost in lieu of implementing the preventive measure (given that the losses in consumer surplus from banning the importation of live sheep from sheep pox areas is small). Based on a risk assessment analysis of the possibility of a disease outbreak in Western Australia, the analysis of this paper provides a quantitative assessment of the quarantine and surveillance system used to reduce the economic threat of sheep pox in Western Australia. It is also estimated that the Movement Restrictions and Surveillance with a Serology Test Program' is more economically efficient than that of 'Movement Restrictions and Surveillance' alone if, and only if, Western Australia's expenditures on that program are smaller than $120,000/year, calculated over a 30-year period.

Number of Pages

9

Keywords

Economics, Sheep pox, Western Australia, Sheep disease

Disciplines

Agribusiness | Agricultural Economics | Biosecurity | Pathogenic Microbiology | Sheep and Goat Science | Virology

Recommended Citation

Che, N, and Kompas, T. (1999), An economic analysis of the threat of an exotic disease on agriculture: The case of sheep pox in Western Australia. Agriculture Western Australia, Perth. Report Miscellaneous publication 20/99.
https://library.dpird.wa.gov.au/bs_publishedrpts/72

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