Using farmers’ attitude and social pressures to design voluntary Bluetongue vaccination strategies

Summary

Understanding the context and drivers of farmers’ decision-making is critical to designing successful voluntary disease control interventions. This study uses a questionnaire based on the Reasoned Action Approach framework to assess the determinants of farmers’ intention to participate in a hypothetical reactive vaccination scheme against Bluetongue. Results suggest that farmers’ attitude and social pressures best explained intention. A mix of policy instruments can be used in a complementary way to motivate voluntary vaccination based on the finding that participation is influenced by both internal and external motivation. Next to informational and incentive-based instruments, social pressures, which stem from different type of perceived norms, can spur farmers' vaccination behaviour and serve as catalysts in voluntary vaccination schemes.