Chinese farmers’ willingness to accept compensation to practice safe disposal of HPAI infected chicken

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is a high morbidity and mortality zoonotic disease, which threatens poultry and human health. An outbreak of disease in China requires strict slaughter and disposal of all chickens within a three-kilometer radius, incurring large private costs for farmers and encouraging black market transactions. A stated preference survey of 331 farmers across six provinces in China was conducted in 2015, in order to measure the responsiveness of farmers to accept various compensation prices for safely disposing of HPAI infected chicken. Findings suggest that about 25% and 40% of farmers in South and North China respectively would not adopt safe disposal at the current compensation price (10 yuan/bird) offered by the government. However, 80% of farmers would adopt safe disposal if the compensation price increased to 14.1 yuan in South China and 18.9 yuan in North China. The adoption of safe disposal by farmers was positively and significantly influenced by compensation price (p = 0.000) and regular contact with epidemic prevention staff (p = 0.094). However, adoption was negatively and significantly influenced by net farm income (p = 0.100) and chicken production income percentage (p = 0.014). Although half of (51%) of farmers were willing to receive zero compensation, a reasonable compensation scheme along with strengthened supervision, may be considered the most effective strategy to encourage safe disposal of HPAI infected chicken and reduce the risks associated with black market transactions.