Culling vs. emergency vaccination: A comparative economic evaluation of strategies for controlling classical swine fever in the EU

Outbreaks of epidemic animal diseases, especially classical swine fever (CSF), are associated with high costs for livestock-producing regions like the European Union (EU). Alternative and complimentary measures exist for dealing with epidemics of animal diseases such as CSF: culling, quarantine, emergency vaccination, preventive vaccination and disease monitoring. In the EU culling in combination with quarantine has remained the only strategy to handle CSF outbreaks. Due to member states' concerns about the tradability of vaccinated pigs and products from vaccinated animals, recent EU decisions have not considered emergency vaccination an appropriate alternative measure although modern DIVA vaccines allow the distinction between infected and vaccinated animals. Concurrently, the potential contribution of DIVA vaccines to the reduction of economic damages of CSF outbreaks has not been thoroughly addressed so far. This research gap motivates to compare the costs of culling and emergency vaccination for the latest outbreak of CSF in the EU exemplarily by applying a self-developed comprehensive simulation tool (TEUS) on the 2006 CSF epidemic in Germany. The results reveal that emergency vaccination involves lower direct costs but higher indirect costs than culling. Especially political interventions by the European Commission, the governments of its member states and the governments of non-EU member states are considered to make an emergency vaccination in case of an CSF outbreak economically unattractive under current conditions. This outcome implies the request for more emergency vaccination friendly EU regulations and OIE requirements.