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Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) is a disease that causes high morbidity and mortality losses to cattle. The financial implications of these losses are of great significance to cattle owners. Control of CBPP is therefore important as a way to salvage the losses and increase the incomes of cattle owners. This study estimated the economic cost of CBPP and the benefits of its control in twelve sub-Saharan African countries using a spreadsheet economic model developed in Microsoft Excel ® . The value of morbidity and mortality losses was estimated at 30 million euros (2.5 million per country) while the total economic cost (direct and indirect production losses plus disease control costs) was estimated at 44.8 million euros (3.7 million euros per country). An investment of 14.7 million euros to control CBPP would prevent a loss of 30 million euros. The financial return on investment in CBPP control is positive, with benefit-cost ratios that range from 1.61 (Ghana) to 2.56 (Kenya).

The need for additional information on household demand for meat and fish in Cameroon is addressed. Probit analysis involving the Heckman selectivity correction procedure is used to estimate the effects of individual and household characteristics on demand for beef, chicken, pork and fish. Results indicate that fish is a relative necessity in Cameroon and is often substituted for beef and chicken by households whose profiles include being of low income levels, having large household sizes, are of middle age and are less educated. Whereas chicken and pork substitute each other, they are each complementary to beef. The profiles of households likely to purchase beef include being married, middle age, educated and of the Muslim faith. Profiles for households most likely to increase their purchases of chicken include being of high income levels and are public sector employed. Some policy implications are provided. 0 0169-5150/01/$see front matter 0 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved PII: S 0 1 6 9 -5 1 5 0 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 1 2 0 -1

A complete AIDS (Almost Ideal Demand System) model incorporating habit formation with and without homogeneity imposed on the system is used to analyze the consumption patterns of five food commodity groups-cereals, roots and tubers, milk and dairy products, meat and fish-in the Republic of Cameroon. Changes in real per capita income are shown to have significant effects on budget shares only for meat, fish, milk and dairy products. From expenditure elasticities, meat, milk and dairy products are classified as relative luxuries while fish, cereals, roots and tubers are classified as relative necessities. Fish, cereals, roots and tubers, milk and dairy products are close substitutes to meat but remain complementary to each other. Changing habits significantly affect budget shares for meat, fish and roots and tubers while urban growth leads to an increase in budget shares for all commodity groups. Some policy implications are provided. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678.

Estimates of factors influencing Cameroon's exports of cocoa, coffee and cotton are derived in a system of equations using the Engle-Granger and Johansen co-integration and error-correction representation procedures. Two co-integrating vectors involving cocoa and coffee exports as endogenous variables are identified in the system while tests for exogeneity of cotton exports are consistent with the independence of cotton from the other two commodities. These findings are corroborated by estimates of a restricted error-correction model which lead to acceptance of the hypothesis that cocoa and coffee exports are indeed determined endogenously to the system and not linked to cotton exports. Statistical significance of the error-correction terms for cocoa and coffee validates the existence of an equilibrium relationship among the variables in each of these cointegrating vectors. The combined short-run dynamic effect of lagged quantities of cocoa and coffee, ezport/dornestic price ratio and GDP jointly explain changes in exports of cocoa whereas lagged quantities exported do not seem to have a significant short-run dynamic effect on changes in coffee exports. q)