News Release
September 1, 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cairo assistant professor presents economics of livestock disease

At first brush, livestock owners in sub-Saharan Africa and northwest Wyoming might not seem to have much in common, but they do – diseases transmitted between livestock and wildlife.

The expertise of Karl Rich, assistant professor at American University in Cairo and consultant with the International Livestock Research Institute (Kenya), will touch upon that and more during his sessions Oct. 1-2 at the University of  Wyoming.

He comes to UW at the request of Dannele Peck, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at UW, who organized the session Rich will participate in at the “Pathways to Success: Integrating Human Dimensions into Fish and Wildlife Management” conference Sept. 28-Oct. 2 in Estes Park, Colo.

Peck said Rich has published numerous articles in agricultural economics and veterinary science journals about the economics of livestock disease.

“In his articles, he illustrates how to integrate economic and epidemiological models, and he demonstrates how they can be used to improve disease-control policy,” she said.

There are only a handful of economists whose research focuses on integrating economic and epidemiological models for animal diseases, Peck noted.

“A small group of researchers at UW are working to develop a research program in this area as it relates to wildlife/livestock diseases,” she said. “Dr. Rich’s visit represents an opportunity to learn from his experience and to connect with the international livestock disease research community.”

The first session is “New Methods for Integrated Models of Animal Disease Control” from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1, in room 223 in the College of Agriculture. He will present advances in integrated economic and epidemiological models of animal disease.

The second session, “Poverty Impacts of Animal Disease in Developing Countries,” is 4-5:30 p.m. Thursday in room 105 of the Classroom Building. Drawing from his experiences in Africa, South America and South Asia, Rich will explore the link between animal disease and poverty in developing countries. The potential for animal-disease control to alleviate poverty will also be discussed.

Livestock producers and wildlife managers in northwest Wyoming are working hard to understand and prevent the transmission of diseases, such as brucellosis, between wildlife and livestock, said Peck.

“Similarly, livestock producers in sub-Saharan Africa struggle to prevent the transmission of foot-and-mouth disease, malignant catarrhal fever, brucellosis and other diseases between cattle, buffalo, wildebeest and other wildlife species,” she said. “We can learn important lessons from each other and increase the positive impact of our research by working collaboratively. Experiences in sub-Saharan Africa can teach us, for example, about the costs of coping with a disease once it becomes endemic in the wildlife population. We can also learn from their experience with diseases currently not present in the United States but whose (re)introduction are constant threats.”

She said one of the challenges of modeling the economics of animal disease is capturing the feedbacks between decision-making and disease dynamics. “The prevalence of disease and, hence, the risk of contracting it, influence livestock management decisions,” said Peck. “These decisions, in turn, change the disease’s pattern of spread, i.e., its epidemiology, which cause the degree of risk to change and hence the decision-makers to revise their livestock management decisions…It’s a very dynamic system.”

Another challenge is capturing the interaction of decisions made by individual producers with decisions made by regional, national and international governing bodies.

“Policymakers with good intentions sometimes create rules they believe will reduce animal disease, but, if they neglect to consider how livestock produces change their behavior in response to the policy, unintended consequences may result, including an increase in animal disease rather than a decease. These are just a few important elements we strive to include in integrated epi-econ models.”

Rich still has time slots available on Wednesday or Thursday for anyone interested in visiting with him one-on-one. Contact Peck at 766-6412 or dpeck@uwyo.edu to arrange a meeting.

“He is eager to interact with those in the UW community who share an interest in animal disease issues and looks forward to discussing potential collaborative opportunities,” she said.

Sponsors who helped bring Rich to the United States are the College of Agriculture, Haub School and Ruckelshaus Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources, and Office of International Programs.

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Contact: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor
Phone: (307) 766-6342
E-mail: slmiller@uwyo.edu
Archived News Site http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/UWAG/news.asp

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