Cattle Review

Control of bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) in the UK is largely voluntary, although there is some variation between individual countries. For individual farmers this is likely to be influenced by psychosocial factors (factors with both psychological and social aspects), such as altruism, trust, and psychological proximity (feeling close) to relevant ‘others’, such as farmers, veterinarians, the government, and their cows. These psychosocial factors are important determinants of how people make decisions related to their own health, many of which have not been studied in the context of infectious disease control by farmers. Farmer psychosocial profiles were investigated in a study by Prosser et al (2022) (Journal of Dairy Science https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2021-21386) using multiple validated measures in an observational survey of 475 UK cattle farmers using the capability, opportunity, motivation-behaviour (COM-B) framework. Farmers were split into five BVD control behaviour classes, which were tested for associations with the psychosocial and COM-B factors using multinomial logistic regression, with doing nothing as the baseline class. Farmers who were controlling disease both for them-selves and others were more likely to do some-thing to control BVD. Farmers who did not trust other farmers, had high psychological capability (knowledge and understanding of how to control disease), and had high physical opportunity (time and money to control disease) were more likely to have a closed, separate herd and test. Farmers who did not trust other farmers were also more likely to undertake many prevention strategies with an open herd. Farmers with high automatic motivation (habits and emotions) and reflective motivation (decisions and goals) were more likely to vaccinate and test, alone or in combination with other controls. Farmers with high psychological proximity (feeling of closeness) to their veterinarian were more likely to undertake many prevention strategies in an open herd. Farmers with high psychological proximity to dairy farmers and low psychological proximity to beef farmers were more likely to keep their herd closed and separate and test or vaccinate and test. Farmers who had a lot of trust in other farmers and invested in them, rather than keeping everything for themselves, were more likely to be careful introducing new stock and test. In conclusion, farmer psychosocial factors were associated with strategies for BVD control in UK cattle farmers. Psychological proximity to veterinarians was associated with proactive BVD control. These findings highlight the importance of a close veterinarianfarmer relationship and are important for promoting effective BVD control by farmers, which has implications for successful nationwide BVD control and eradication schemes.