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Abstract
A dynamic model of livestock disease and decentralised economic behaviour is
constructed as a jointly determined system. By accounting for feedbacks between
behavioural choices and disease outcomes, the model captures the endogenous nature
of infection risks. Government mandated testing of livestock herds and how private
biosecurity incentives are affected by the structure of disease eradication polices are
considered. How well disease control policies are targeted affects their effectiveness
and may result in farmers substituting government testing and disease surveillance for
private biosecurity. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that failing to account
for feedbacks between the disease ecology and economic systems may overestimate the
effectiveness of government disease control policies.