Public-private partnerships for biosecurity: an opportunity for risk sharing

Private efforts to prevent and control biological pests and infectious diseases can be a public good, and so incentivising private biosecurity management actions is both desirable and problematic. Compensation contracts can encourage biosecurity efforts, provide support against the collapse of economic sectors, and create an insurance network. We conceptualise a novel biosecurity instrument relying on formal compensation private–public partnerships using contract theory. Our framework explains how the public sector can harness increased private biosecurity measures by making payments to agents which depend both on their performance and that of the other stakeholders. Doing so allows the government to spread the risk across signatory agents. The framework also improves our understanding of government involvement due to public effects of biosecurity, influenced by the private agents’ capacity to derive private benefit from their own efforts on monitoring and control. Lastly, these theoretical results provide a foundation for further study of contractual responsibility sharing for pest management

Associations between attributes of live poultry trade and HPAI H5N1 outbreaks: a descriptive and network analysis study in northern Vietnam

Background: The structure of contact between individuals plays an important role in the incursion and spread of contagious diseases in both human and animal populations. In the case of avian influenza, the movement of live birds is a well known risk factor for the geographic dissemination of the virus among poultry flocks. Live bird markets (LBM's) contribute to the epidemiology of avian influenza due to their demographic characteristics and the presence of HPAI H5N1 virus lineages. The relationship between poultry producers and live poultry traders (LPT's) that operate in LBM's has not been adequately documented in HPAI H5N1-affected SE Asian countries. The aims of this study were to document and study the flow of live poultry in a poultry trade network in northern Vietnam, and explore its potential role in the risk for HPAI H5N1 during 2003 to 2006

Shaping our future: animal health in a global trading environment

Ireland is currently experiencing both the positive and negative effects of global trade in agricultural products. With increasing global competition, there is little doubt that Irish agricultural product must increasingly compete on the basis of quality, rather than price

Implementing natural capital credit risk assessment in agricultural lending

Agriculture has critical impacts and dependencies on natural capital, and agriculturallenders are therefore exposed to natural capital credit risk through their loans tofarmers. Currently, however, lenders lack any detailed guidance for assessing naturalcapital credit risk in agriculture and are challenged by the fact that the relevant material risks vary considerably by agricultural sector and geography. This paper developsa natural capital credit risk assessment framework based on a bottom‐up review ofthe material risks associated with natural capital impacts and dependencies forAustralian beef production. It demonstrates that implementing natural capital creditrisk assessment is feasible in agricultural lending, using a combination of quantitativeand qualitative inputs. Implementation challenges include the complexity and interconnectedness of natural capital processes, data availability and cost, spatial data analytical capacity, and the need for transformational change, both within lendingorganisations and across the banking sector

Introduced deer and their potential role in disease transmission to livestock in Australia

1. The transmission of pathogens between wildlife and livestock is a globally recognised threat to the livestock industry, as well as to human and wildlife health. Wild cervids are susceptible to many diseases affecting livestock. This presents a challenge for wildlife and domestic animal disease management because the frequent use of agricultural areas by wild cervids may hamper the effectiveness of disease control strategies. 2. Six deer species have established wild populations in Australia and are expanding in range and abundance. A comprehensive literature review of diseases impacting deer and livestock was undertaken, resulting in consideration of 38 pathogens. A qualitative risk assessment was then carried out to assess the overall risk posed by the pathogens to the livestock industry. 3. Five diseases (bovine tuberculosis, foot and mouth disease, malignant catarrhal fever, surra, and screw‐worm fly infestation) ranked highly in our risk assessment. Of these five diseases, only one (malignant catarrhal fever) is currently present in Australia, but all five are notifiable diseases at a national level. Data on these diseases in deer are limited, especially for one of the most abundant species, the sambar deer Rusa unicolor, highlighting a further potential risk attributable to a lack of understanding of disease epidemiology. 4. This paper provides a detailed review of the pathogens affecting both cervids and livestock in Australia, and applies a qualitative framework for assessing the risk posed by deer to the livestock industry. The qualitative framework used here could easily be adapted to assess disease risk in other contexts, making this work relevant to scientists and wildlife managers, as well as to livestock industry workers, worldwide

Lessons learned during the successful eradication of bovine tuberculosis from Australia

There are very few international examples of the successful eradication of bovine tuberculosis (TB, caused by infection with Mycobacterium bovis) from a national cattle population. This paper presents a brief overview of the successful TB eradication programme in Australia from 1970, with primary emphasis on lessons of international relevance that were learned from the Australian experience. The national brucellosis and tuberculosis eradication campaign ran for 27 years from 1970 to 1997 and has been followed by ongoing abattoir surveillance. Rapid progress towards eradication was made in southern Australia, but proved much more challenging in extensive pastoral areas of northern Australia. Declaration of TB freedom was made on December 31, 1997. A range of factors were critical to this success, including a compelling rationale for eradication, an agreed final outcome, industry commitment and financial support, a business model for programme planning, implementation and review, consistent and transparent technical standards underpinned by a strict regulatory regime and applied research, the critical role of abattoir surveillance, effective elimination of residual infection and objective measures of programme progress. Although direct translation of some of these experiences may not be possible, many of the lessons learned from the Australian experience may be relevant to other countries