Cost-eﬀectiveness of controlling Salmonella in the pork chain Monique A. van der Gaag a,b, * , Helmut W. Saatkamp b ,G e B.C. Backus c , Paul van Beek d , Ruud B.M. Huirne b a Research Institute for Animal Husbandry, P.O. Box 2176, 8203 AD Lelystad, The Netherlands b Wageningen University, Farm Management, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands c Agricultural Economics Research Institute, P.O. Box 29703, 2502 LS The Hague, The Netherlands d Wageningen University, Management Studies, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands Received 17 November 2002; received in revised form 22 February 2003; accepted 24 February 2003 Abstract Pork is one of the sources of food-borne salmonellosis in humans. In this paper, the cost-eﬀectiveness of diﬀerent control sce- narios against Salmonella in the stages ﬁnishing, transport, lairage and slaughtering is explored. A stochastic simulation model was used for the epidemiological analysis and a deterministic model for the economic evaluation. Results showed that the cost-eﬀec- tiveness of interventions in the ﬁnishing and slaughtering stages is the highest with respect to the reduction of the prevalence of contaminated carcasses. However, the cost-eﬀectiveness is reduced in case not all farms or ﬁrms within a stage intervene to reduce the prevalence of Salmonella. Ó 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Control of Salmonella; Economics; Pigs; Food safety 1. Introduction Pork is one of the sources of food-borne salmonel- losis in humans. In the Netherlands, annual societal costs caused by human salmonellosis are estimated be- tween 32 and 90 million Euro (Van Pelt & Valkenburgh, 2001). About 25% of all human cases are caused by serotypes originating from pigs (Van Pelt & Valken- burgh, 2001). Up until now, in the Dutch pork chain there is neither a control system nor a diﬀerentiation in payments with respect to the contamination of the product with Salmonella. Hence, there is no direct in- centive for producers to reduce the Salmonella preva- lence. However, indirect incentives such as the increased interest for food safety and the large competition on the (international) market for pork, are of increasing im- portance, since about two-third of the Dutch pork is exported (Anonymous, 2001a). Therefore, it is impor- tant to get more insight into the trade-oﬀ between prevalence reduction and associated costs. Because of the ubiquity of the bacteria, it is un- likely that zero prevalence in the entire pork supply chain can be reached and maintained. However, from a technical point of view, many strategies on reduction of the prevalence of Salmonella have been studied and many conceivable scenarios for improvement of food safety with respect to Salmonella appeared to exist. Salmonella occurs generally sub-clinically in pigs. Salmonella can enter and spread in the pork supply chain in every stage of the process. For example in the primary stages by feed, people or rodents and during transportation and at the slaughterhouse by (cross-)contamination of the environment or infected animals. Hence, for an eﬀective control resulting in a satisfying reduction in the end product, the entire supply chain must be involved (Berends, Knapen, Mossel, Burt, & Snijders, 1998; Lammerding & Fazil, 2000). Remarkably, economic evaluations are still scarce. From an economic and decision making point of view, the cost-eﬀectiveness in terms of the ratio between the achieved reduction in prevalence (DP ) and the change in net costs to obtain this reduction (DC) is of great im- portance as well (Belli, Anderson, Barnum, Dixon, & Tan, 2001). It is essential to get insight in which stages * Corresponding author. Fax: +31-317-48-27-45. E-mail addresses: m.a.van.der.gaag@pv.agro.nl, monique. vandergaag@wur.nl (M.A. van der Gaag). 0956-7135/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0956-7135(03)00029-X Food Control 15 (2004) 173–180 www.elsevier.com/locate/foodcont