Study of cost-sharing of disease prevention and eradication in Ukraine

The study was carried out for the EBRD (the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), through desk study, workshop and stakeholder interviews.

The purpose of this project was to evaluate if a cost-sharing system for controlling animal disease outbreaks would be feasible for Ukraine. 

Ukraine experiences recurrent outbreaks of African Swine Fever with severe damage for the Ukraine pig sector. Historically, state authorities in EU Member States bore the direct expenses of disease eradication and control measures, such as after foot-and-mouth disease and classical swine fever outbreaks. However, political pressure rose to share costs between government and the livestock sector because multiple outbreaks occurred in several countries, and because outbreaks led to excessive costs. This has led to a cost sharing policy, resulting in public-private funding of disease prevention/eradication. 

Control of infectious diseases creates a significant socio-economic burden for competent authorities, business operators and farmers for management of infectious disease outbreaks.  The non-vaccination policy in the EU, and international trade regulations in general, require high sanitary status of animals and animal products. As a consequence, eradication and control measures require costly interventions: such as culling of infected herds, pre-emptive culling to reduce the spread of disease (and often extra costs for testing long after the last case was identified, to demonstrate absence of disease) according to international (EU, OIE) standards. Cost-sharing between government and livestock sector defines responsibilities in disease prevention and control for both entities, and contributes to a better acceptance by the general public.

The report summarises cost sharing systems for animal diseases in the Netherlands and other EU countries and defines requirements of public-private schemes for diseases monitoring, prevention and eradication. It also decribes the current situation in Ukraine regarding animal disease control, and provides recommendations for implementation of public-private funding (PPF) of disease prevention and eradication in Ukraine.