Case study

Evaluation of Eradicating BVD in Wales
ClientColeg Sir Gar in partnership with the Royal Veterinary College
TaskEvaluation

Miller Research were appointed to conduct the mid-term and final evaluation evaluation of Eradicating BVD in Wales. Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) is a disease that has been prevalent across farms in Wales and has severely impacted the productivity of farms, affecting the health of cattle and resulting in a variety of health complications. Consequently, the disease has been damaging for the farming sector, costing the industry around £5m per year due to loss in output. The BVD screening programme is an intervention seeking to screen farm animals and remove “persistent infector” calves as a first step towards eradicating BVD in Wales.

The evaluation includes the need to explore and conduct an innovative economic assessment of BVD screening. In our approach, we initially conducted in depth economic literature reviews to scope out the latest research and economic analysis concerning farming, animal health and BVD and the economics of farming. We subsequently collected a sample of farming data from over 7000 farms across Wales. Using the knowledge and insights gained, and applying our quantitative expertise we devised the tools to establish a framework to model our economic analysis of the effects of BVD screening. We used Greenbook principles to value the costs and benefits across farming activities and estimate the economic outcomes of the BVD programme in Wales. We are working with leading scientists from the Royal Veterinary College to capture granular information and support the robustness of our model.

The project is covering a gap in economic research on farming in Wales. The research will be foundational to developing more expertise and knowledge of this area in the future.

Miller Research is undertaking the evaluation in three work packages which covers the following:

  • The reporting system: To assess the programme monitoring and reporting system/s.
  • A process evaluation: To evaluate programme implementation, processes and progress against targets.
  • An outcome evaluation: To evaluate the outcomes of the programme.