The economic impact attributable to brucellosis among goat farms in Peninsula Malaysia and cost benefit analysis

Brucellosis is known to cause economic losses to livestock farmers around the world. The amount of direct economic loss suffered by farmers has not been reported in Malaysia. This study reports the cost benefit analysis of goat farming and the economic impact attributable to brucellosis in goat farms in four states of Malaysia. Data about production indices and management was collected from farms through interviewer-administered structured questionnaires. The cost-benefit analysis of goat farming in Malaysia shows that it is a profitable business with 42 farms yielding about RM 2 million (USD 645,161.29) a month. Comparing fifteen farms from the four states when they had no brucellosis infection and after they were infected with brucellosis using the culling of the goats and farm value as criteria the fifteen farms had a financial loss of at least RM 156,212.50 (USD 50,391.13) which was found to be significant (P<0.05) at 95% confidence level using Wilcoxon signed rank test with IBM SPSS version 20. There was no significant difference in the economic impact on the farms between the various states at 95% confidence level using Kruskal-Wallis test with IBM SPSS version 20. Based on reported seroprevalence rate of 2.9% using complement fixation test it was estimated that annually the economic impact due to caprine brucellosis was RM7,974263.8 (USD 2,572343.1). This study highlights the colossal waste to the economy due to caprine brucellosis and underscores the urgent need to take more drastic measures to eradicate brucellosis in Malaysia through a combination of test and slaughter policy with vaccination of goats and a total ban on importation of live goats into Malaysia from any endemic country