Economic determinants of farmer decision-making related to animal disease

This chapter reviews the major economic and financial issues of farmers’ management decisions related to livestock disease. Farmer decisions are first examined from the perspective of costminimising or profit-maximising with no risk, uncertainty or information issues, which is most appropriately applied to endemic diseases. The role of risk and uncertainty in farm decisions is then examined, as are farm incentives in the presence of information asymmetries. This analysis provides insights that are relevant to epidemic diseases. Finally, the role of the farm industry structure and spatial effects in disease management are examined.