Economic benefits of diagnostic testing in livestock

Anaplasmosis in cattle

Abstract

Anaplasmosis is an economically important livestock disease that can result in death loss, productivity loss, and burdensome treatment costs. Uncontrolled outbreaks can impose a significant financial burden on cattle producers worldwide, which may be mitigated by diligent surveillance and management. Evaluating the economic benefit of various management tools can be complicated, and in the case of diagnostic testing, is influenced by disease prevalence as well as the test and individual herd characteristics. This study applies an economic model to determine the value of anaplasmosis testing in various scenarios representative of cow-calf operations.