Mitigating farmers trauma after disease outbreak and mass culling

The control options for infectious diseases of livestock most often includes mass slaughter of both infected animals and animals that are at risk of infections in a practice referred to as culling. Several culling methods exist. This strategy has been employed for several decades in the control of diseases like bovine tuberculosis, avian flu, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, classic swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), and even anthrax.

The world is currently experiencing the worst avian flu outbreak with millions of poultry culled. In 2022, about 22, 000 cattle were slaughtered in England as a result of bovine tuberculosis. The 2001 FMD outbreak in the UK resulted in the culling of several animals with losses estimated at £8 billion pounds.

In 2020, about 300,000 pigs which provided for the sustenance of many households were culled to control African swine fever in Nigeria. Globally, similar virus in pigs have resulted in the culling of millions of pigs with huge losses to farmers. The first case of bird flu in Africa in 2006 was estimated to cost about US$ 32 million with several people losing their investments, livelihood, and jobs. The age-long practice of culling is inevitable as long as infectious diseases exist. However, the attendant effects on farmers, business owner and animal health care providers can be mitigated.

Recent arguments suggest that there are devastating effects of disease outbreaks and culling on farmers. A recent report by the UK parliament’s Environmental, Food, and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee confirmed that shock events such as animal disease outbreaks can affect the mental health of farmers as well as their animal health care providers. Suicidal attempts by farmers whose animals were culled have severally been reported. Thus, a lot more needs to be done by the society and relevant authorities to alleviate the pains of farmers in times of any disease outbreaks

The provision of mental health support, well being support, and farmers support fund in times of disease outbreak will go a long way to alleviate the pains of farmers and guarantee the stable supply of animal proteins (and related products).