Implementation of vaccination strategies on British dairy farms: understanding challenges and perceptions

This PhD thesis aimed to identify the motivators and barriers of farmers and veterinary surgeons to the implementation of vaccination strategies on British dairy farms. There is no universal cattle vaccination schedule in Britain, therefore vaccination decisions are made on a farm by farm basis,...

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Main Author: Richens, Imogen Frances
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30439/
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author Richens, Imogen Frances
author_facet Richens, Imogen Frances
author_sort Richens, Imogen Frances
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This PhD thesis aimed to identify the motivators and barriers of farmers and veterinary surgeons to the implementation of vaccination strategies on British dairy farms. There is no universal cattle vaccination schedule in Britain, therefore vaccination decisions are made on a farm by farm basis, however there is a paucity of research investigating the decision-making behind dairy cattle vaccination. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were carried out with dairy farmers and fourteen with veterinary surgeons. The transcripts were subject to thematic analysis which generated five key themes from each of the interview studies. Farmers and vets perceive vaccines to be an effective and useful tool to control and prevent disease on British dairy farms and are motivated to vaccinate cattle if there is evidence of disease on-farm, or a perceived risk of disease entering a farm. Challenges to cattle vaccination chiefly arise from differences in how risk is perceived by vets and farmers, and farmers’ potential lack of awareness of their herd’s disease status. Enhancing the relationship between farmers and vets is therefore crucial to optimising vaccination decision-making. In order to optimise implementation of vaccination strategies further research including farmer vaccination compliance, vaccine efficacy, methods of communication and risk perception is needed. This will support creation of a practical vaccination strategy, and could provide a basis for national collaborative disease control strategy.
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format Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
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language English
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spelling nottingham-304392025-02-28T11:36:38Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30439/ Implementation of vaccination strategies on British dairy farms: understanding challenges and perceptions Richens, Imogen Frances This PhD thesis aimed to identify the motivators and barriers of farmers and veterinary surgeons to the implementation of vaccination strategies on British dairy farms. There is no universal cattle vaccination schedule in Britain, therefore vaccination decisions are made on a farm by farm basis, however there is a paucity of research investigating the decision-making behind dairy cattle vaccination. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were carried out with dairy farmers and fourteen with veterinary surgeons. The transcripts were subject to thematic analysis which generated five key themes from each of the interview studies. Farmers and vets perceive vaccines to be an effective and useful tool to control and prevent disease on British dairy farms and are motivated to vaccinate cattle if there is evidence of disease on-farm, or a perceived risk of disease entering a farm. Challenges to cattle vaccination chiefly arise from differences in how risk is perceived by vets and farmers, and farmers’ potential lack of awareness of their herd’s disease status. Enhancing the relationship between farmers and vets is therefore crucial to optimising vaccination decision-making. In order to optimise implementation of vaccination strategies further research including farmer vaccination compliance, vaccine efficacy, methods of communication and risk perception is needed. This will support creation of a practical vaccination strategy, and could provide a basis for national collaborative disease control strategy. 2015-12-09 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30439/1/I.%20F.%20Richens%20Thesis%2009.10.2015.pdf Richens, Imogen Frances (2015) Implementation of vaccination strategies on British dairy farms: understanding challenges and perceptions. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. Dairy cattle vaccination Farmers attitudes to vaccination Veterinarians attitudes to vaccination Disease prevention in dairy cattle
spellingShingle Dairy cattle vaccination
Farmers attitudes to vaccination
Veterinarians attitudes to vaccination
Disease prevention in dairy cattle
Richens, Imogen Frances
Implementation of vaccination strategies on British dairy farms: understanding challenges and perceptions
title Implementation of vaccination strategies on British dairy farms: understanding challenges and perceptions
title_full Implementation of vaccination strategies on British dairy farms: understanding challenges and perceptions
title_fullStr Implementation of vaccination strategies on British dairy farms: understanding challenges and perceptions
title_full_unstemmed Implementation of vaccination strategies on British dairy farms: understanding challenges and perceptions
title_short Implementation of vaccination strategies on British dairy farms: understanding challenges and perceptions
title_sort implementation of vaccination strategies on british dairy farms: understanding challenges and perceptions
topic Dairy cattle vaccination
Farmers attitudes to vaccination
Veterinarians attitudes to vaccination
Disease prevention in dairy cattle
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30439/