Congratulations to Marloes Boeters, Beatriz Garcia-Morante, Gerdien Van Schaik, Joaquin Segales, Jonathan Rushton and Wilma Steeneveld who have had the following publication ‘The economic impact of endemic respiratory disease in pigs and related interventions- a systematic review’. You can find the full version here
Abstract
Background Understanding the financial consequences of endemically prevalent pathogens within the porcinerespiratory disease complex (PRDC) and the effects of interventions assists decision-making regarding diseaseprevention and control. The aim of this systematic review was to identify what economic studies have been carriedout on infectious endemic respiratory disease in pigs, what methods are being used, and, when feasible, to identifythe economic impacts of PRDC pathogens and the costs and benefits of interventions.
Results By following the PRISMA method, a total of 58 studies were deemed eligible for the purpose of thissystematic review. Twenty-six studies used data derived from European countries, 18 from the US, 6 from Asia, 4 fromOceania, and 4 from other countries, i.e., Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. Main findings from selected publications were: (1)The studies mainly considered endemic scenarios on commercial fattening farms; (2) The porcine reproductive andrespiratory syndrome virus was by far the most studied pathogen, followed by Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, but theabsence or presence of other endemic respiratory pathogens was often not verified or accounted for; (3) Most studiescalculated the economic impact using primary production data, whereas twelve studies modelled the impact usingsecondary data only; (4) Seven different economic methods were applied across studies; (5) A large variation exists inthe cost and revenue components considered in calculations, with feed costs and reduced carcass value included themost often; (6) The reported median economic impact of one or several co-existing respiratory pathogen(s) rangedfrom €1.70 to €8.90 per nursery pig, €2.30 to €15.35 per fattening pig, and €100 to €323 per sow per year; and (7)Vaccination was the most studied intervention, and the outcomes of all but three intervention-focused studies wereneutral or positive.
Conclusion The outcomes and discussion from this systematic review provide insight into the studies, theirmethods, the advantages and limitations of the existing research, and the reported impacts from the endemicrespiratory disease complex for pig production systems worldwide. Future research should improve the consistencyand comparability of economic assessments by ensuring the inclusion of high impact cost and revenue componentsand expressing results similarly.