S. Bechnielsen et al., PSEUDORABIES (AUJESZKYS-DISEASE) ERADICATION PROGRESS AND PROGRAM COSTS IN OHIO, USA, Preventive veterinary medicine, 22(1-2), 1995, pp. 41-53
The purpose of this study was to document how the Ohio pseudorabies (P
RV) (Aujeszky's disease) eradication program has progressed to its cur
rent status from its initiation in 1977 to the present, as well as to
project the year and program costs of eradication of PRV from Ohio, ba
sed on a retrospective study of data retrieved from records available
on swine herds quarantined in Ohio. All swine herds newly quarantined
for PRV from January 1985 to 31 December 1992 (n = 446) were eligible
for the study, 374 (84%) of which had useable data available. Projecte
d year of PRV eradication from Ohio was 1996. Information on detection
methods of newly infected herds were only available for 52 of the 374
(14%) data files reviewed from 1985 through 1992, with laboratory dia
gnosis accounting for 30 of 52 (58%). 'Area spread' was identified as
the most likely source of PRV infection of newly quarantined herds in
140 of 194 (72%) for which data files were available from the time per
iod 1985 to 1992. Information on herd plans used in the same time inte
rval were available for 285 of the 374 data files (76%). The median nu
mber of months under quarantine per herd from 1986 to 1992 were 7.7 mo
nths, 6.2 months, 5.9 months, 5.1 months, 17.3 months, 18.9 months and
12.3 months, respectively. Finally the average year-specific cost per
herd-month under quarantine representing 54% of herds released from q
uarantine for each of the years 1986 through 1992 ranged from $795 in
1990 to $2999 in 1992 and were based on the total amounts of money ava
ilable and spent in the Ohio PRV eradication program. According to the
cost analysis of the period 1993-1998, eradication of PRV can be achi
eved in Ohio, as projected, by 1996 at a minimum public cost of about
$3.7 million discounted to 1992 dollars.