What Does The General Public Know About Biosecurity And Disease Spread In Livestock?

Introduction:In a society more focused on animal welfare, livestock farming encounters public acceptability challenges. Aligning societal expectations with producers’ needs requires increased stakeholder awareness. We aimed to explore the public’s perception and attitudes towards biosecurity, their knowledge about disease spread and their own awareness of their personal role within it.

Methods:An online survey was launched in 23 languages and disseminated between 08-2022 and 06-2023 to BETTER COST Action network contacts. Inclusion criteria were having no livestock work experience and age over 18.

Results:A total of 1331 participants from 47 countries responded. Respondents were typically female (66%), aged 40.8±14.2, and lived in urban settings (62.7%) in Europe (91.5%). On a scale from 0 (disagreement) to 10 (agreement), participants felt infectious disease had negative consequences for livestock (8.3+/-2.52), could spread from animals to humans (8.1+/-2.31) and, to a lesser extent, could spread from humans to animals (6.4+/-3.05). Over 70% acknowledged livestock movements (i.e., importation) and wildlife as factors contributing to international disease spread, while bringing food from abroad (57.8%) or (human) traveling (44.4%) were considered less of a problem. Respondents (60%) were unaware or disagreed that picnic leftovers could transmit infections to livestock, few indicated they washed their hands before and after contacting animals in farms or public locations (18.4%), with more doing it after contacting livestock or pets (63.2%). Just over one quarter of people (27.3%) had not heard of the term “biosecurity” previously, with 42.7% being aware of the term but not about its meaning.

Discussion:Findings suggest uncertainty in biosecurity understanding and limited awareness of human-mediated disease transmission. However, participants recognized the potential for animal-human transmission risks.

Conclusion:More needs to be done to raise awareness and knowledge about biosecurity among the public. These results have been used to inform general public participatory actions, and the development of effective communication strategies.