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BEST PRACTICES IN MANAGEMENT OF ANIMAL DISEASE Culling, or the practice of slaughtering animals to reduce population or control disease, has always been a central part of disease control strategy within livestock and wildlife populations. The goal of this practice is to destroy a population of potentially infected animals so that the disease cannot spread. While it can sometimes be effective, culling is an expensive disease control policy. The most recent avian influenza scare occurred in 2015 and lead to the destruction of roughly 49.5 million chickens and turkeys in the United States, which was estimated to have an economic cost of $1.57 billion (McKenna, 2015). That is just the direct cost of lost birds. If you examine the poultry industry as a whole—in losses in eggs, losses to food service firms, etc.—the total economic loss is closer to $3.3 billion (McKenna, 2015). For areas in which subsistence farming dominates, the practice of culling as a method of disease control becomes problematic. First, there is concern that if people kill their food source to prevent the spread of disease, they will no longer have anything to eat. Secondly, there are often no guarantees that the farmers will receive compensation, if they cull their animals. This was seen Global Leadership at a Crossroads
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