ECONOMIC BENEFITS AND COSTS OF VACCINATING DOMESTIC SHEEP AGAINST BLUETONGUE VIRUS IN WYOMING

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: TERMINATED
• Funding Source: ANIMAL HEALTH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1002918
• Project No.: WYO-532-14
• Project Start Date: Oct 1, 2014
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2016

Project Director
Peck, DA.

Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING
1000 E UNIVERSITY AVE DEPARTMENT 3434
LARAMIE,WY 82071-2000

Performing Department
Agricultural And Applied Economics

Non Technical Summary
Bluetongue (BT) disease is a serious and recurring threat to sheep producers in Wyoming and surrounding states. Bluetongue virus (BTV) is transmitted by biting midges (Culicoides sonorensis) in late summer and early autumn, just before lambs are typically sent to market. Symptoms of BT include inflammation and congestion, a bluish discoloration of the skin, hemorrhages and ulcerations (most visible in the mouth and nose), and lameness. These symptoms can be fatal, or cause sheep to go off feed, lose weight, and fail to breed. The goal of our study is to develop and distribute economic information that sheep-producers can use to decide whether to vaccinate their sheep against BT. Our results will show whether this management activity can increase sheep producers' profit by reducing the chance of a catastrophic BT outbreak.

Animal Health Component

100%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

100%

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
311	3610	3010	100%

Knowledge Area
311 - Animal Diseases;

Subject Of Investigation
3610 - Sheep, live animal;

Field Of Science
3010 - Economics;

Keywords

sheep

bluetongue virus

economics

vaccine

Goals / Objectives
The primary goal of our proposed study is to develop and distribute economic information and a decision-tool that sheep producers in Wyoming and surrounding states can use to decide whether it makes economic sense to adopt a BTV-17 vaccine.A secondary goal of our proposed study is to provide economic information which sheep associations and animal health experts can use to decide whether it would make economic sense to stockpile a BTV-17 vaccine that Wyoming producers could quickly access at the first sign of a regional outbreak.Objectives for achieving our goals are as follows:1) Recruit a highly-qualified student into the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics' masters program to work on the proposed study for their thesis research;2) Revise existing sheep budgets (Gardiner 2011), with input from our producer partner, to represent one farm-flock and three range-flocks of various sizes;3) Estimate the cost of a BT outbreak for our four representative sheep operations; 4) Estimate the cost of administering a custom-ordered BTV-17 vaccine on the four operations;5) Determine for each of the four sheep operations how costly and/or frequent a BT outbreak would have to be to justify investing in a BTV-17 vaccine;6) Present research results to sheep producers in Wyoming and surrounding states via a producer-led presentation at the Tri-State Wool Growers Convention, to obtain stakeholder feedback and answer questions about BT disease and procurement of a BTV-17 vaccine;7) Develop an Extension bulletin that presents our economic budgets, cost estimates, and benefit estimates in a manner that producers can easily revise to reflect their operations' unique characteristics, costs and benefits.

Project Methods
1. To estimate the farm-level economic consequences of a BT outbreak on a Wyoming sheep operation, we will first build enterprise budgets for four representative sheep operations: one farm-flock of a size not yet determined, and three range-flocks with 256, 640, and 1,440 breeding ewes. An enterprise budget describes all resources used and outputs produced by a single enterprise (e.g., feeder lambs) within an agricultural operation, and resulting costs, revenues, and net revenue. All enterprise budgets and subsequent analyses will be developed in Microsoft Excel. A graduate student recruited to the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics will search the literature for existing farm-flock budgets, which they will then modify to represent a Wyoming farm-flock based on data from the 2008 Wyoming Sheep Producer Survey Summary. Our collaborating sheep producer will review these four draft budgets to assess their accuracy and relevance; revisions will be made as necessary.2. We will then use partial budget analysis to estimate changes in the operation's activities, due to a BT outbreak or adoption of a BTV-17 vaccine, that affect resource use, output production, costs, and revenues. Partial budgets are used to summarize new costs, cost-savings, new revenue, or foregone revenue attributable to an event or change in an enterprise, in this case a BT outbreak or adoption of a BTV-17 vaccine.3. Common economic methods we may use in the proposed study include:a. Adjusting prices to a common base-year when they are originally reported in different years.b. Discounting future costs or benefits to calculate present value.c. Annualizing multi-year costs or benefits.d. Calculating breakeven levels of impact, effectiveness, or risk.e. Simulating multiple versions of a budget to account for variability in prices and other input parameters.4. To accurately estimate the costs of a BT outbreak or vaccination with BTV-17, we need to understand state and federal regulations that guide the state veterinarian's actions in preparation for, or in response to a suspected case of BT. We will therefore engage the Wyoming State Veterinarian, relevant USDA-APHIS personnel, and our collaborating sheep producer to identify an appropriate set of assumptions about regulations related to the prevention of, and response to BT cases (e.g., length and spatial extent of flock quarantines, disposal of sheep that have succumbed to the disease, depopulation of infected sheep, movement bans).

Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience for this reporting period was sheep producers and the Wyoming State Veterinarian. We presented the results of our project at the Wyoming Wool Growers Midyear Membership Meeting in Casper, WY, on August 8, 2016. It was presented by D. Peck to 20 attendees; 7 of whom filled out an evaluation form: 6 of 7 indicated they learned 'a lot' or 'a fair amount' from this presentation; 3 of 7 indicated they are more likely to try to protect their sheep against bluetongue as a result of this presentation. Powerpoint slides available at http://bit.ly/2ayF0hT. We also presented our results at the Fremont County Farm and Ranch Days in Riverton, WY, on February 10, 2016. It was presented by T. Munsick and R. Jones (collaborating producer) to 12 attendees. This presentation was also highlighted in two news-articles: (1) "Research looks at economic impact of vaccinating for bluetongue," by Saige Albert of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup, 27(43):C4, February 27, 2016; (2) "Blue tongue disease worry grows; vaccine not yet available in state," by Alejandra Silva of The Ranger (Fremont County newspaper), February 21, 2016. Lastly, we published a short-report of our results in the Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station Field Days Bulletin in 2016 (Off-Station Reports). Changes/Problems:The only problem we encountered was inadequate information/data to update the farm-flock budget. Therefore, we were unable to quantify the economic impacts of bluetongue disease on a farm-flock, or the economic potential of vaccinating a farm-flock. Nonetheless, graduate student Tris Munsick discussed in his thesis how he would expect our results to differ, qualitatively, for a farm-flock. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our project provided several opportunities for our graduate student to attend industry-related conferences throughout Wyoming and to engage in conversations with industry professionals regarding the costs, benefits, and practicalities of adopting a BTV-17 vaccine. Our student gained first-hand knowledge of rangeland sheep production by travelling to various sheep operations and participating in hands-on livestock management activities. Lastly, our graduate student benefited from extensive one-on-one mentoring (both research-related and career-related) from his committee members (Dannele Peck, Myrna Miller, John Ritten) and cooperating producer (Randall Jones). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We presented the results of our project at the Wyoming Wool Growers Midyear Membership Meeting in Casper, WY, on August 8, 2016. It was presented by D. Peck to 20 attendees; 7 of whom filled out an evaluation form: 6 of whom 7 indicated they learned 'a lot' or 'a fair amount' from this presentation; 3 of 7 indicated they are more likely to try to protect their sheep against bluetongue as a result of this presentation. Powerpoint slides available at http://bit.ly/2ayF0hT. We also presented our results at the Fremont County Farm and Ranch Days in Riverton, WY, on February 10, 2016. It was presented by T. Munsick and R. Jones (collaborating producer) to 12 attendees. This presentation was also highlighted in two news-articles: (1) "Research looks at economic impact of vaccinating for bluetongue," by Saige Albert of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup, 27(43):C4, February 27, 2016; (2) "Bluetongue disease worry grows; vaccine not yet available in state," by Alejandra Silva of The Ranger (Fremont County newspaper), February 21, 2016. Lastly, we published a short-report of our results in the Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station Field Days Bulletin in 2016 (Off-Station Reports). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We accomplished the following major goals of our project: We developed and shared economic information that sheep producers in Wyoming and surrounding states can use to decide whether it makes economic sense to adopt a BTV-17 vaccine. We provided economic information that sheep associations and animal health experts can use to decide whether it would make economic sense to stockpile a BTV-17 vaccine that Wyoming producers could quickly access at the first sign of a regional outbreak. Related to our objectives, we accomplished the following: 1) We recruited a highly-qualified student into the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics' masters program to work on the proposed study for their thesis research. Tris Munsick successfully defended his Master's thesis in August of 2016; 2) We revised existing sheep budgets (Gardiner 2011), with input from our producer partner, to represent three range-flocks of various sizes. We were not able to obtain sufficiently reliable data to update the farm-flock budget; 3) We estimated the cost of a BT outbreak for three representative sheep operations; 4) We estimated the cost of administering a custom-ordered BTV-17 vaccine on the three operations; 5) We determined for each of the three sheep operations how costly and frequent a BT outbreak would have to be to justify investing in a BTV-17 vaccine; 6) We presented our research results to sheep producers in Wyoming via a producer-led presentation at the Fremont County Farm and Ranch Days in February 2016, to obtain stakeholder feedback and answer questions about BT disease and procurement of a BTV-17 vaccine. We also presented the results to sheep producers and the Wyoming State Veterinarian at the Wyoming Wool Growers Midyear Membership Meeting in August 2016. 7) We are still in the process of developing an Extension bulletin to present our economic budgets, cost estimates, and benefit estimates in a manner that producers can easily revise to reflect their operations' unique characteristics, costs and benefits.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Munsick, T., R. Jones (collaborating producer), D. Peck, J. Ritten, M. Miller. 2016. Economic impacts of vaccinating sheep flocks against bluetongue. Fremont County Farm and Ranch Days, Riverton, WY, February 10, 2016.[Highlighted in a news-article titled, Research looks at economic impact of vaccinating for bluetongue, by Saige Albert of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup, 27(43):C4, February 27, 2016. Also highlighted in a news-article titled, Blue tongue disease worry grows; vaccine not yet available in state, by Alejandra Silva of The Ranger (Fremont County newspaper), February 21, 2016.]
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Peck, D., T. Munsick, M. Miller, J. Ritten, R. Jones. 2017. Economics of Vaccinating Extensively Managed Sheep Flocks against Bluetongue Disease. Flash presentation and poster at the Inaugural Meeting of the International Society for Economics and Social Sciences of Animal Health, Aviemore, Scotland, March 27-28, 2017.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: Munsick, T., D. Peck, J. Ritten, M. Miller, R. Jones. Economics of Vaccinating Extensively Managed Sheep Flocks against Bluetongue Disease in the western United States. "Proceedings of the Inaugural ISESSAH Conference" in Frontiers of Veterinary Science. (In progress)
• Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Munsick, T. 2016. Farm-level costs of bluetongue in domestic sheep, and the economic viability of BTV vaccine use in Wyoming. Master's thesis from the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA.
• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Peck, D., T. Munsick, M. Miller, R. Jones. 2016. Economics of vaccinating sheep against bluetongue disease. Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station Field Days Bulletin 2016, Off-Station Reports, Short Reports, pp. 167-168.
• Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Hageman, C. [based on interviews with M. Miller and D. Peck]. 2014. Vet sciences, agricultural economics scientists combine to study bluetongue virus. Ag News 23(1):13-14. University of Wyoming College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Available at http://megaslides.com/doc/9241836/ag-news
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Munsick, T., D. Peck, J. Ritten, R. Jones, M. Miller. 2016. Cost of bluetongue in sheep & benefits of vaccination. Wyoming Wool Growers Midyear Membership Meeting, Casper, WY, August 8, 2016. Powerpoint slides available at http://bit.ly/2ayF0hT.

Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience for this reporting period has primarily been sheep producers and extension agents. We have presented the objectives of our project to extension agents and have communicated with Wyoming producers via phone interviews and face-to-face conversations. We have travelled to various sheep operations around the state in order to increase our team's knowledge of sheep production and the impacts of a bluetongue outbreak. These visits have allowed us to communicate with sheep producers and industry professionals about our work, and gather practical insights/feedback from them. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our project has provided several opportunities for our graduate student to attend industry-related conferences throughout Wyoming and to engage in conversations with industry professionals regarding the costs, benefits, and practicalities of adopting a BTV-17 vaccine. Our student has also gained first-hand knowledge of rangeland sheep production by travelling to various sheep operations and participating in hands-on livestock management activities. Lastly, our graduate student has benefited from extesnive one-on-one mentoring (both research-related and career-related) from his committee members (Dannele Peck, Myrna Miller, John Ritten) and cooperating producer (Randall Jones). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Last spring, we presented the objectives of our project to University of Wyoming Extension specialists and educators at an Extension Training event to raise their awareness of our work, in hopes of raising awareness within those educators' communities throughout the state. At the time of our presentation no results were available for discussion; however it served as an effective means of educating members of the Wyoming Extension community about our research. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period we will continue working towards completing our research goals. Specifically, we will: 1.) finish estimating the cost of a bluetongue outbreak; 2.) estimate the cost of administering the BTV-17 vaccine; 3.) determine for each of the four representative sheep operations how costly and/or fequent a bluetongue outbreak would have to be to incentivize adopting vaccination into their management scheme; 4.) present research results to sheep producers in Wyoming and surrounding states; and 5.) develop a draft extension bulletin that presents our economic budgets, cost estimates, and benefit estimates that can be easily tailored to represent unique individual operations.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have made the following progress towards accomplishing the major goals of our project: 1.) We have recruited a qualified student into the AGEC Department to work on the proposed project, Mr. Tristram Munsick, who has successfully completed his first full year of graduate school. As a reflection of the quality of his work as a student, Tris was selected as a co-recipient of our Department's prestigious Andrew and Connie Vanvig Graduate Fellowship for 2015. 2.) We have revised existing sheep budgets to represent one farm-flock and three range-flocks of various sizes. 3.) We are in the process of estimating the cost of a BT outbreak for our four representative sheep operations.

Publications