Using farmers' attitude and social pressures to design voluntary Bluetongue vaccination strategies.
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.
Preventive veterinary medicine