This chapter sets out the roles of private producers and government to prevent and control animal disease based on the OECD framework for risk management in agriculture. It then introduces key issues of aligning farmer incentives with public objectives as these relate to animal disease risks.

This chapter reviews the major economic and financial issues of farmers’ management decisions related to livestock disease. Farmer decisions are first examined from the perspective of costminimising or profit-maximising with no risk, uncertainty or information issues, which is most appropriately applied to endemic diseases. The role of risk and uncertainty in farm decisions is then examined, as are farm incentives in the presence of information asymmetries. This analysis provides insights that are relevant to epidemic diseases. Finally, the role of the farm industry structure and spatial effects in disease management are examined.

This chapter adds the insights from behavioural economics into farmer disease management. This research area combines psychology, sociology, and economics to examine the behaviour of economic actors. The theoretical framework of behavioural studies and the mapping of behavioural drivers into different policy areas is presented first, followed by an overview of the key findings of behavioural research applied to livestock farming. The final section presents a summary of the policy implications.

This chapter considers outside factors that play a role in farmer disease management. It covers how livestock farmers working collectively to manage livestock disease in areas such as risk insurance, surveillance, and in response to livestock epidemics. This collective action often involves partnerships with the government. What influence do actors in the rest of the value chain have on farmer livestock disease management? Responses to food safety and quality, animal welfare and other consumer concerns related to livestock production methods may drive changes in farm practices by aligning incentives with policy objectives. This is followed by a discussion of what the presence of wildlife populations as disease reservoirs and vectors means to disease management and farm decisions. The final section summarises the implications for livestock policy across these issues.