Factors associated with participation of Alberta dairy farmers in a voluntary, management-based Johne's disease control program.
The Alberta Johne's Disease Initiative (AJDI) is a voluntary, management-based prevention and control program for Johne's disease (JD), a wasting disease in ruminants that causes substantial economic losses to the cattle industry. Despite extensive communication about the program's benefits and low cost to participating producers, approximately 35% of Alberta dairy farmers have not enrolled in the AJDI. Therefore, the objective was to identify differences between AJDI nonparticipants and participants that may influence enrollment. Standardized questionnaires were conducted in person on 163 farms not participating and 61 farms participating in the AJDI. Data collected included demographic characteristics, internal factors (e.g., attitudes and beliefs of the farmer toward JD and the AJDI), external factors (e.g., farmers' JD knowledge and on-farm goals and constraints), as well as farmers' use and influence of various information sources. Nonparticipants and participants differed in at least some aspects of all studied categories. Based on logistic regression, participating farms had larger herds, higher self-assessed knowledge of JD, better understanding of AJDI details before participation, and used their veterinarian more often to get information about new management practices and technologies when compared with nonparticipants. In contrast, nonparticipants indicated that time was a major on-farm constraint and that participation in the AJDI would take too much time. They also indicated that they preferred to wait and see how the program worked on other farms before they participated.
Department of Production Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, T2N 4N1 Calgary, AB, Canada. Electronic address: cmnritte@ucalgary.ca.
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Ritter
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, T2N 4N1 Calgary, AB, Canada.
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Kwong
Department of Production Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, T2N 4N1 Calgary, AB, Canada.
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Wolf
Department of Production Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, T2N 4N1 Calgary, AB, Canada.
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Pickel
Alberta Milk, T6X 1H1 Edmonton, AB, Canada.
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Slomp
Alberta Milk, T6X 1H1 Edmonton, AB, Canada.
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Flaig
Department of Production Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, T2N 4N1 Calgary, AB, Canada; Alberta Milk, T6X 1H1 Edmonton, AB, Canada.
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Mason
Department of Veterinary Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, T2N 4N1 Calgary, AB, Canada.
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Adams
Department of Population Medicine, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, N1G 2W1 Guelph, ON, Canada.
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Kelton
St. Anna Advies, 6525 ZM Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
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Jansen
Department of Production Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, T2N 4N1 Calgary, AB, Canada.
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De Buck
Department of Production Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, T2N 4N1 Calgary, AB, Canada.
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Barkema
D000416:Alberta; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003612:Dairying / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D000067565:Farmers; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D010283:Paratuberculosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D018634:Veterinarians; D035141:Voluntary Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
Johne’s disease; attitude; behavior; communication; extension