Economic losses occurring due to brucellosis in Indian livestock populations.

Abstract

Brucellosis is a serious public health issue in India. Estimation of economic losses occurring due to brucellosis is required to help formulate prevention and control strategies, but has not been done in India. We estimated economic losses due to brucellosis by sourcing prevalence data from epidemiological surveys conducted in India. Data for livestock populations were obtained from official records. Probability distributions were used for many of the input parameters to account for uncertainty and variability. The analysis revealed that brucellosis in livestock is responsible for a median loss of US $3.4 billion (5th–95th percentile 2.8–4.2 billion). The disease in cattle and buffalo accounted for 95.6$ 6.8 per cattle, US$18.2 per buffalo, US$ 0.7 per sheep, US$0.5 per goat and US$ 0.6 per pig. These losses are additional to the economic and social consequences of the disease in humans. The results suggest that the disease causes significant economic losses in the country and should be controlled on a priority basis. Keywords: bovine brucellosis; ovine brucellosis; porcine brucellosis; economic loss; India; developing countries; zoonoses; partial budgeting Highlights • This is the first systematic analysis of the economic losses occurring due to brucellosis in livestock populations in India. • The analysis revealed that brucellosis in livestock is responsible for a median loss of US $ 3.4 billion (5th–95th percentile 2.8–4.2 billion). • There is urgent need to formulate intervention policies for prevention and control of this disease in India