Farmers’ valuation and willingness to pay for vaccines to protect livestock resources against priority infectious diseases in Ghana

Nuvey, F. S., Hanley, N. , Simpson, K. , Haydon, D. T. , Hattendorf, J., Mensah, G. I., Addo, K. K., Bonfoh, B., Zinsstag, J. and Fink, G. (2023) Farmers’ valuation and willingness to pay for vaccines to protect livestock resources against priority infectious diseases in Ghana. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 219, 106028. (doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2023.106028) (PMID:37774497)

Abstract

Introduction: Livestock vaccination coverage rates remain low in many lower and middle income countries despite effective vaccines being commonly available. Consequently, many preventable infectious livestock diseases remain highly prevalent, causing significant animal mortalities and threatening farmers’ livelihood and food security. This study sought to assess farmers’ maximum willingness to pay (WTP) for contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), and peste-des-petits-ruminants (PPR) vaccination of cattle, and sheep and goats, respectively. Methods: Overall, 350 ruminant livestock farmers were randomly selected from three districts located in the northern, middle and southern farming belts of Ghana. We implemented a double-bounded dichotomous contingent valuation experiment, where farmers indicated their WTP for vaccinating each livestock specie(s) owned at randomly assigned price points. WTP responses were analyzed using maximum likelihood estimation, and factors influencing WTP were assessed using censored regression analysis accounting for village-level clustering. Results: Mean WTP for CBPP vaccination was USD 1.43 or Ghanaian Cedi (GHC) 8.63 (95% CI: GHC 7.08–GHC 10.19) per cattle. Mean WTP for PPR vaccination was USD 1.17 or GHC 7.02 (95% CI: GHC 5.99–GHC 8.05) per sheep, and USD 1.1 or GHC 6.66 (95% CI: GHC 5.89–GHC 7.44) per goat. WTP was positively associated with resilience, limited knowledge about vaccines (assessed prior to WTP experiment), farmland size, and male gender, after adjusting for other covariates. To attain 70% vaccination coverage in Ghana, vaccination costs should be no larger than GHC 5.30 (USD 0.88) for CBPP per cattle and GHC 3.89 (USD 0.65) and GHC 3.67 (USD 0.61), respectively, for PPR vaccines per sheep and goat. Conclusions: Ruminant livestock farmers in Ghana value vaccination highly, and are, on average, willing to pay vaccination costs that exceed the prevailing market prices (GHC 6 for CBPP and GHC 5 for PPR vaccination) to protect their livestock resources. To achieve 70% coverage, only minor subsidies would likely be required. These results suggest that effective disease control in these settings should be possible with appropriate distribution strategies.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene [GT21/14282/GB], and the Afrique One-African Science Partnership for Intervention Research Excellence [Afrique One-ASPIRE/DEL-15-008]. The funders had no role in the study.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hanley, Professor Nicholas and Simpson, Dr Katherine and Haydon, Professor Daniel
• Authors: Nuvey, F. S., Hanley, N., Simpson, K., Haydon, D. T., Hattendorf, J., Mensah, G. I., Addo, K. K., Bonfoh, B., Zinsstag, J., and Fink, G.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine; College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > Health Economics and Health Technology Assessment
• Journal Name: Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0167-5877
• ISSN (Online): 1873-1716
• Published Online: 24 September 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Preventive Veterinary Medicine 219:106028
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License