Where and how much are the global losses due to dairy cattle diseases?

Researchers carried a comorbidity-adjusted economic analysis in more than 180 milk producing countries to estimate the global economic impacts of 12 dairy cattle diseases and health conditions. Photo: Canva

Researchers have found that annual losses caused by dairy cattle diseases are greatest in India, the US and China but that losses from a range of diseases varied markedly across the globe.

In a study published in the Journal of Dairy Science, the researchers carried a comorbidity-adjusted economic analysis in more than 180 milk producing countries to estimate the global economic impacts of 12 dairy cattle diseases and health conditions. They looked at the following diseases:

Mastitis (subclinical and clinical)
Lameness
Paratuberculosis (Johne’s Disease)
Displaced abomasum
Dystocia
Metritis
Milk Fever
Ovarian cysts
Retained placenta
Ketosis (clinical and subclinical)

The estimates of disease impacts were based on milk yield, fertility and culling, and were collected from the literature, standardised, meta-analysed using a variety of methods ranging from simple averaging to random-effects models, and were adjusted for comorbidities to prevent overestimation. These comorbidity-adjusted disease impacts were then combined with a set of country-level lactational incidence and/or prevalence estimates, herd characteristics, and price estimates within a series of Monte Carlo simulations that estimated and valued the economic losses due to these diseases.

Led by Philip Rasmussen from the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, the results estimated that total annual global losses were US$65 billion.

Costliest dairy cow diseases and counries

Subclinical ketosis, clinical mastitis and subclinical mastitis were the costliest diseases modelled, resulting in mean annual global losses of approximately US$18 billion, US$13 billion and US$9 billion, respectively.

Estimated global annual losses were also estimated as a result from clinical ketosis (US$0.2 billion), displaced abomasum (US$0.6 billion), dystocia (US$0.6 billion), lameness (US$6 billion), metritis (US$5 billion), milk fever (US$0.6 billion), ovarian cysts (US$4 billion), paratuberculosis (US$4 billion) and retained placenta(US$3 billion).

Without adjustment for comorbidities, when statistical associations between diseases were disregarded, mean aggregate global losses would have been overestimated by 45%.

Although annual losses were greatest in India (US$12 billion), the US (US$8 billion) and China (US$5 billion), depending on the measure of losses used (losses as a percent of GDP, losses per capita, losses as a percentage of gross milk revenue), the relative economic burden of these dairy cattle diseases across countries varied markedly.

The study can be found here: Global losses due to dairy cattle diseases: A comorbidity-adjusted economic analysis – ScienceDirect