Economic impact of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia and cost–benefit analysis of the vaccination programmes based on a one‐year continuous monitoring of flocks in the arid and semi‐arid lands of Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya and East Africa, contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) is one of the most prevalent infectious diseases affecting small ruminants in pastoral areas with adverse consequences on livelihoods. This is so despite the implementation of bi-annual vaccination campaigns. Unfortunately, the impact of the disease and the cost-effectiveness of its prevention and control in a pastoral context have been difficult to assess due to a lack of reliable data. The dynamic of flock population, high illiteracy and limited outreach are the main challenges for proper data collection. Nevertheless, such analysis is important to justify the implementation of national vaccination campaign for livestock disease control and to contribute to pastoral households' economy support programme. A continuous flock monitoring was performed for a year in Turkana County to collect data on flock dynamics and the different causes of mortalities. A stochastic model was developed to evaluate the annual economic losses due to CCPP in a standard flock of 100 heads and evaluate the cost-benefit ratio of the vaccination programmes based on different scenarios of 95%, 50% and 20% vaccination effectiveness. The annual economic losses due to CCPP for a standard flock of 100 heads were estimated at Euros 1,712.66 in average. The benefits-costs ratio of the vaccination supports the current bi-annual vaccination campaigns, even with a vaccine effectiveness limited to 20% (average benefits-costs ratio of 5.715 with SD of 3.914). This justifies the campaigns as part of a food security or livelihood support programme. However, from an overall health perspective and for long-term effects on livestock asset protection and disease control, a higher vaccination effectiveness is required.