Exploring Attitudes and Beliefs towards Implementing Cattle Disease Prevention and Control Measures: A Qualitative Study with Dairy Farmers in Great Britain

Abstract

Simple SummaryFurther understanding of why dairy farmers do not engage in disease prevention and control strategies (biosecurity) is required. Using semi-structured interviews informed by a health psychology approach with 25 dairy farmers, a number of barriers, such as disease testing inaccuracies, types of disease transmission, perceived lack of risk and effectiveness of measures, were identified. Motivators included being advised to undertake measures by veterinarians, and the increased threat and severity of the disease in focus. These results suggest there is an advantage to farm advisors and herd health professionals understanding and working with the beliefs of individual dairy farmers to target appropriate communication and advice strategies relating to biosecurity recommendations.AbstractDisease prevention and control practices are frequently highlighted as important to ensure the health and welfare of farmed animals, although little is known as to why not many practices are carried out. The aim of this study was to identify the motivators and barriers of dairy cattle farmers towards the use of biosecurity measures on dairy farms using a health psychology approach. Twenty-five farmers on 24 farms in Great Britain (GB) were interviewed using the Theory of Planned Behaviour framework. Results indicated that farmers perceived they had the ability to control what happened on their farms in terms of preventing and controlling disease, and described benefits from being proactive and vigilant. However, barriers were cited in relation to testing inaccuracies, effectiveness and time-efficiency of practices, and disease transmission route (e.g., airborne transmission). Farmers reported they were positively influenced by veterinarians and negatively influenced by the government (Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)) and the general public. Decisions to implement practices were influenced by the perceived severity of the disease in question, if disease was diagnosed on the farm already, or was occurring on other farms. Farmers described undertaking a form of personal risk assessment when deciding if practices were worth doing, which did not always involve building in disease specific factors or opinions from veterinarians or other advisors. These results indicate that further guidance about the intricacies of control and prevention principles in relation to specific animal diseases may be required, with an obvious role for veterinarians. There appears to be an opportunity for farm advisors and herd health professionals to further understand farmer beliefs behind certain attitudes and target communication and advice accordingly to further enhance dairy cattle health and welfare.

Farmer and Veterinarian Attitudes towards the Bovine Tuberculosis Eradication Programme in Spain: What Is Going on in the Field?

“…Discordant results between diagnostic tests, the lack of guides and standards for interpretation of diagnostic results and the absence of lesions at the post-mortem inspection have been already described as possible barriers toward bTB eradication in previous studies, as they might reduce the engagement of farmers in preventive health interventions (4, 8, 39). Our results further highlight that the level of confidence on the interpretation of SIT results was often linked with skills and experience of official and private veterinarians involved in the field activities of the testing campaign.…”

“…In addition, a low awareness on the zoonotic risk of bTB also emerged; these aspects might discourage farmers in implementing preventive measures against bTB since the cost for such implementation would outweigh perceived benefits. This perception might be another major factor influencing the effectiveness of the programme as preventive measures might be undertaken by farmers if they clearly perceive that the benefits outweigh the costs (4). …”

“…Recently, the situation has changed and the interest on the influence of social factors in the control programmes of animal diseases has greatly increased. As a matter of fact, several studies have highlighted the importance of understanding the attitudes and behaviours of the different stakeholders involved, as their actions have a great influence on the effectiveness and sustainability of such programmes (4–9). …”

Exploring the Relationship between Farmers’ Innovativeness and Their Values and Aims

“…In addition to investment support, raising the educational level, as well as training and learning from best practice examples, are identified as crucial for the innovation activities of farmers [15][16][17][18]. Education as a key component in enhancing innovativeness is also identified as invaluable for small businesses other than agriculture by investigating a binary outcome variable [19].…”

“…Education as a key component in enhancing innovativeness is also identified as invaluable for small businesses other than agriculture by investigating a binary outcome variable [19]. Moreover, investigation of other personal traits such as attitudes and behavioural control shows how important these aspects are in actively following up-to-date practices [16,20]. Although an ever-growing interest in increasing farmers' innovativeness can be observed, it should not be forgotten that even small-holder farmers have been innovating and experimenting and creating knowledge at least on a small scale since the Neolithic Revolution [21].…”