Resilience of Belgian Cattle Farmers Towards Infectious Diseases Outbreaks

biosecurity; effectiveness; feasibility; implementation; infectious diseases; outbreaks; resilience; Belgium/epidemiology; Biosecurity; Cattle Diseases/prevention & control; Belgium; Cattle Diseases; Disease Outbreaks; Veterinary (all)

Abstract :

[en] The study addresses the growing risk of infectious disease outbreaks in livestock by developing and applying a composite resilience index to evaluate the adaptive capacity of Belgian cattle farmers in implementing biosecurity measures (BSMs). The framework integrates three core dimensions, that is, implementation, feasibility and effectiveness, across three priority diseases representing distinct epidemiological profiles and transmission routes like brucellosis, bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). The analysis combines three data sources as follows: (i) a farm-level survey documenting the implementation of 41 BSM across 100 cattle farms, (ii) a feasibility assessment conducted with a panel of 38 farmers and (iii) expert evaluations of the disease-specific effectiveness of each BSM. Farm-level resilience scores were computed by weighting the degree of implementation by the feasibility and effectiveness of each BSM. Results show marked heterogeneity in resilience scores (17% to 99%) and in both the feasibility and adoption of BSM. Several measures assessed as both effective and feasible exhibited low uptake, indicating the existence of behavioural and perceptual barriers. The overall resilience index followed a normal distribution and was significantly higher in dairy farms than in beef farms, while no significant differences were observed between provinces. The study introduces a robust, evidence-based tool for assessing and benchmarking farm-level biosecurity resilience. It concludes that enhancing resilience depends less on the number of BSM implemented than on the strategic selection of context-appropriate, feasible, and effective measures. The findings support a shift towards disease-specific, tailored biosecurity strategies and highlight the need for further research into the behavioural determinants of feasibility.

Disciplines :

Veterinary medicine & animal health

Author, co-author :

Renault, Véronique ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des maladies infectieuses et parasitaires (DMI) > Epidémiologie, analyse de risques et biosécurité appliquées aux sciences vétérinaires

Delooz, Laurent ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals and Health (FARAH) ; Regional Association for Animal Health and Identification (ARSIA), Ciney, Belgium

Humblet, Marie-France ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des maladies infectieuses et parasitaires (DMI)

Saegerman, Claude ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des maladies infectieuses et parasitaires (DMI) > Epidémiologie, analyse de risques et biosécurité appliquées aux sciences vétérinaires

Language :

English

Title :

Resilience of Belgian Cattle Farmers Towards Infectious Diseases Outbreaks

Alternative titles :

[fr] Résilience des éleveurs bovins belge vis à vis des épidémies de maladies infectieuses

Original title :

[en] Resilience of Belgian Cattle Farmers Towards Infectious Diseases Outbreaks

Publication date :

2026

Journal title :

Transboundary and Emerging Diseases

ISSN :

1865-1674

eISSN :

1865-1682

Publisher :

John Wiley and Sons Ltd, Germany

Volume :

2026

Issue :

Pages :

2415909

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1155/tbed/2415909

Funders :

ULiège - Université de Liège

Funding text :

The study was supported by the University of Liege.

Available on ORBi :

since 26 June 2026

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