LAUSR

Johne's disease (JD), or paratuberculosis, is an infectious disorder primarily associated with cattle and sheep and resulting in significant economic losses for dairy producers. The dairy cattle herd-level prevalence in Canada has recently been estimated to be greater than 40%, but the willingness to pay for JD control practices such as testing-and-culling and vaccination among Canadian dairy producers is unknown. This study used confidential cost-of-production data from the Canadian Dairy Commission to develop a Canadian dairy production model incorporating feed, land, labor, and machinery. A second dataset from a nationally distributed questionnaire (closed in March 2020) was used to estimate individual dairy producer valuations of the reduced per-cow cost of milk production that would result from JD control. This is a novel application of compensating variation and equivalent variation (CV and EV), with dairy producers framed as consumers of production inputs and milk output as a proxy for utility. Assuming a within-herd prevalence of 12.5% and a 50% reduction of that prevalence over 10 years, it was estimated JD control has an annual value of CA$28 per cow for the average Canadian dairy producer. Within-herd prevalence, the effectiveness of control at reducing within-herd prevalence, and the time required to achieve that reduction were identified as important factors. With the same assumption of 12.5% within-herd prevalence but with 100% reductions in that prevalence, estimated values ranged from over CA$55 to over CA$90 per cow per year depending on the timeframe of the control program. When assuming a 10-year period required to achieve control, the estimated values exceeded CA$90 per cow per year in various scenarios for herds with higher within-herd prevalence (greater than 20%).