SUPPLY CHAIN IMPLICATIONS FOR A NON-ZOONOTIC FOREIGN ANIMAL DISEASE

Our long-term goal is to improve the understanding of how a significant animal disease outbreak will affect demand and consumption for meat if recovered and healthy livestock within an active disease outbreak are sent to processors. The overall objective of this project is to assess demand for meat products from recovered animals, consumer willingness to pay for meat from recovered animals, and how to best use meat from recovered animals in the food supply chain. To measure acceptance and estimate willingness to pay or accept, we will employ an online survey of consumers with a choice experiment, best-worst scaling, and other relevant questions. Qualitative data will be collected through interviews with meat processors to help build the consumer survey and gauge processor willingness to harvest recovered animals given a foreign animal disease outbreak. Specific objectives include: 1)Gauge processor perceptions of meat harvested from livestock within an animal disease infection zone and develop a consumer choice experiment survey; 2)Quantify consumer willingness to pay for meat products from recovered animals; and 3)Identify where meat products from recovered animals can be best positioned in the food-retail supply chain.