Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is endemic in Cambodia and throughout the
Greater Mekong Subregion and causes significant losses to rural smallholders
owning the majority of the national large ruminant population. However, due to
underreporting, paucity of knowledge of FMD impacts, limited veterinary capacity
and deficits of data available for analysis, the quantifiable benefits of a national
FMD control programme are unknown. To address this deficit, existing literature
and research data from the ‘Best practice health and husbandry of cattle, Cambodia’
project conducted between 2007 and 2012, were used to develop a threephase
analysis framework to: assess the impacts of the recent widespread FMD
epizootic in Cambodia in 2010, conduct a value chain analysis of the large ruminant
market and estimate the costs and benefits for a national large ruminant
biannual FMD vaccination programme. A trader survey conducted in 2010–2011
provided cattle and buffalo value chain information and was matched to village
herd structure data to calculate a total large ruminant farm-gate value of USD
1.271 billion in 2010. Monte Carlo simulation modelling that implemented a 5-
year biannual vaccination programme at a cost of USD 6.3 an animal per year
identified a benefit-cost ratio of 1.40 (95% CI 0.96–2.20) when accounting for
recent prices of cattle and buffalo in Cambodia and based on an expected annual
incidence of 0.2 (assuming one major epizootic in the 5-year vaccination programme).
Given that the majority of the large ruminants are owned by rural
smallholders, and mostly the poor are involved in agricultural employment, the
successful implementation of an FMD control programme in Cambodia would be
expected to avoid estimated losses of USD 135 million; equivalent to 10.6% of the
2010 farm-gate value and contributing to important reductions in rural poverty
and food insecurity