Unravelling Belgian Blue cattle farmers’ adoption intention towards diagnostic tools: Integrating insights from behavioural economics and socio-cognitive theories

Abstract

Macrocyclic lactone resistance in Psoroptes ovis mites, causing psoroptic mange, is emerging in beef cattle. Therefore, diagnostic tools that can indicate macrocyclic lactone resistance should be implemented at farms in order to control these parasitic infections and slow down emerging resistance. Unfortunately, the adoption of such tools remains relatively poor. This study explores which beliefs, and behavioural biases that misconstrue these beliefs, underlie farmers' adoption intention. Five semi-structured focus groups were conducted with Belgian Blue cattle farmers (n = 38). Inductive analysis revealed that farmers' positive attitudes towards acaricides use and risk perception towards acaricide resistance made them rather reluctant to implement diagnostic tools. In addition, farmers' susceptibility to acaricide resistance occurring on their farm was weakened by the optimism and availability bias. Deductive analysis revealed that economic reasons, usefulness of the diagnostic tool and contribution to animal wellbeing motivated farmers to adopt such tools (i.e., behavioural beliefs). However, the loss aversion and time discounting bias weakened farmers' beliefs related to economic reasons. The veterinarian was seen as the responsible actor for implementing diagnostic tools, while colleague-farmers' opinion related to the diagnostic tool was also valued (i.e., normative beliefs). The latter belief was strengthened by the bandwagon-effect bias. Farmers' beliefs about economic costs related to the diagnostic tool tended to hinder adoption intention, while the veterinarian's assistance motivated farmers to implement such tools (i.e., control beliefs). The loss aversion bias also strengthened farmers' control beliefs related to the diagnostic tools' perceived costs. As such, this article provides more insights into the (ir)rational factors shaping farmers' intention to adopt diagnostic tools. These insights might help animal health organisations to design communication strategies to stimulate the adoption of diagnostic tools on beef cattle farms.

Incorporating Heterogeneity in Farmer Disease Control Behaviour into a Livestock Disease Transmission Model

“…Vaccination was particularly costly in this disease scenario (£50 per animal) and high vaccination costs have been shown to decrease the likelihood of farmers vaccinating in a bluetongue outbreak (Sok et al, 2018). Subsidising an intervention measure is another tool that could change farmer behaviour for earlier intervention use (Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, 2018), because farmers are more likely to use disease control measures if they are affordable (Jones et al, 2015;Mingolla et al, 2021). However, subsidisation is unlikely to change farmer behaviour if it is impractical (Bennett and Cooke, 2005), and a large level of subsidisation was required to increase the preference for bluetongue vaccination in the Netherlands (Sok et al, 2015).…”

Social research to understand farmer and agricultural stakeholder attitudes towards bovine tuberculosis vaccination of cattle

“…A range of different behavioural insight frameworks have been used to shape human behaviour in human and veterinary medicine 9,10 . Each of these frameworks shares a common set of behavioural influences that are reflected in the EAST behavioural insights framework 7 .…”

“…A range of different behavioural insight frameworks have been used to shape human behaviour in human and veterinary medicine. 9,10 Each of these frameworks shares a common set of behavioural influences that are reflected in the EAST behavioural insights framework. 7 This framework suggests that behaviour can be influenced by making behavioural choices easy, attractive, social and timely (see Table 1).…”

Understanding the uptake of diagnostics for sustainable gastrointestinal nematode control by European dairy cattle farmers: a multi-country cross-sectional study

“…These personal traits often explain more variation in farm performance than farmers’ measurable management practices [ 44 ]. To account for these factors, different theoretical frameworks have been applied, to examine a wide range of cattle farmers’ health-related behaviours, such as the control of mastitis [ 21 , 22 ], Johne’s disease [ 3 , 33 ], foot-and-mouth disease [ 15 ], lameness [ 27 , 28 ], the implementation of on-farm biosecurity [ 43 ], vaccination strategies [ 41 ], antimicrobial usage [ 23 , 26 ] and psoroptic mange [ 29 , 30 ]. The combination of socio-psychological theories and methodologies with traditional epidemiologic approaches has proven useful for exploring cattle farmers’ intentions and behaviours.…”