title: 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% of the total losses occurring due to brucellosis in livestock populations. The disease is responsible for a loss of US $ 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health & Zoonoses, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab 141004, India. Electronic address: bbsdhaliwal@gmail.com.
authors.forename: B B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, 425 Werombi Road, Camden, 2570 NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: N K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Dhand
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health & Zoonoses, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab 141004, India.
authors.forename: J P S
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Gill
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000191:economics*; D000818:Animals; D002006:Brucellosis / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D058751:Livestock; D015995:Prevalence
keywords: Bovine brucellosis; Developing countries; Economic loss; India; Ovine brucellosis; Partial budgeting; Porcine brucellosis; Zoonoses