Factors Influencing Disease Prevention and Control Behaviours of Hog Farmers

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Animal diseases have increasingly become an important external impact that restricts the healthy development of the pig industry. African swine fever has seriously threatened the stable development of the pig industry in China and caused huge economic losses for farmers. The control behaviour by farmers is particularly important in the front line of epidemic prevention. To explore the factors that affect epidemic prevention and control behaviour by farmers, field survey data was empirically analysed. The results show that gender, education level, technical training, breeding years, breeding scale, specialisation, and risk awareness have significant effects on the biosecurity measures taken by farmers. ABSTRACT: Animal diseases are a serious threat to animal husbandry production and diet health, and effective prevention and control measures need to be explored. This study investigates the factors influencing the adoption of biosecurity prevention and the control behaviours of hog farmers towards African swine fever and provides appropriate recommendations. Using research data from Sichuan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Tianjin, Liaoning, Jilin, and Hebei, we employed a binary logistic model to empirically analyse these factors. Regarding individual farmer characteristics, male farmers emphasised biosecurity prevention and control in farms, with higher education actively influencing the adoption of prevention and control measures. Farmers who received technical training were actively inclined to adopt such behaviours. Furthermore, the longer the duration of farming, the more probable the farmers were to neglect biosecurity prevention and control. However, the bigger and more specialised the farm, the more inclined they were to adopt prevention and control behaviours. With respect to disease prevention and control awareness, the more risk-averse the farmers were, the more they actively adopted epidemic prevention behaviours. As the awareness of epidemic risk increased, the farmers tended to adopt active epidemic prevention behaviours by reporting suspected outbreaks. The following policy recommendations were made: learning about epidemic prevention and improving professional skills; large-scale farming, specialised farming; and timely dissemination of information to raise risk awareness.