The analysis of costs related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy disease occurrence in the Czech Republic in 2001–2014

Abstract

This paper pays attention to analysis of the economic impacts of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) occurrence in the Czech Republic, namely the financial compensations to the farmers whose herds had been affected and the costs of animal killing and carcass disposal in the rendering plant. Between February 2001 and the end of 2014, a total of 1 879 749 cows were examined and 30 cases of the BSE were detected. Consequently, 4 243 cows in cohorts were killed and their carcasses were safely disposed of. The farmers whose herds had been affected were provided compensations for the losses suffered. The total of the compensations in this period reached EUR 7 752 000. Of these, 83.3 % (EUR 6 458 000) were compensations for the value of the killed animals, 9.7 % (EUR 752 000) for the related costs, i.e., killing, safe disposal of carcasses and the examination for the BSE, and 6.9 % (EUR 535 000) for the losses due to non-materialised production. The average costs per 1 BSE-positive animal were EUR 258 400 and the average costs per 1 cohort animal were EUR 1 827. In the rendering plant responsible for killing the infected and cohort animals and safely disposing of their carcasses, the total of 2 342 tons of raw material was processed between March 2003 and 2009, and this cost EUR 363 777. The fact that there were only two last cases of the BSE in 2009 suggests a trend towards the disease eradication, which is in agreement with the situation in the other EU countries.