Mogens Lund

Cost―effectiveness of Salmonella reduction in Danish abattoirs

The objective of this paper is to compare the cost-effectiveness of four decontamination technologies at the pork abattoirs. The four technologies investigated are hot water, steam ultrasound, steam vacuum and lactic acid. In the analysis, the prevalence of Salmonella and the effects of the decontaminating technologies are stochastic with known distributions and they are expected to be implemented without distortion of the existing processing system. Cost data are collected from the Danish Meat Research Institute, suppliers of decontamination technology, abattoirs using the technology as well as the literature. The risk data are based on Danish surveillance data, research projects investigating the effects of different decontamination measures and the literature. Implemented on a full scale in abattoirs, the results suggest that the technologies might reduce Salmonella from the present level of 2.2% to between 0.18 and 0.89%. Among the technologies investigated, steam ultrasound showed to be the most cost-effective method followed by hot water decontamination.

The impact of socio-economic factors and incentives on farmers’ investment behaviour

Abstract This article investigates how socio-economic factors and incentives affect farmers’ investment behaviour. The motivation is a need for a better quantitative knowledge of investment behaviour in order to support farmers’ investment decisions through extension services and public investment support schemes. Data from a questionnaire survey among 208 Danish pig producers are analysed by use of logistic regression and the relationships between socio-economic factors, investment incentives and farmers’ investment behaviour are empirically revealed. The results show that the farmers who rank economic incentives as the most important when making investments are those who yield the best financial results. Off-farm income and partial productivity were also higher on these farms. As hypothesised, young farmers with a large production are more likely to invest in real assets than others. No cross sectional trends relating the incentives for making investments to the investment propensity were identified. One important policy implication of the results is that improved knowledge of the socio-economic factors and their influence on investment behaviour and incentives may reduce the deadweight loss associated with many governmental investment programmes.

NATURAL HISTORY OF MICTURITION SYNCOPE

A follow‐up study was performed on 10 patients with micturition syncope 5–15 years after their initial attack. Three patients had died of cardiac or pulmonary diseases (at age 61, 69 and 82 years). One had developed focal motor epilepsy which was considered to be unrelated to his previous attack of micturition syncope. Only (age 60) developed a hemianopsia in connection with his micturition syncope. Only one patient had had a new attack of micturition syncope which had occurred during a febrile illness. Two often sit down prophylactically during micturition. It is concluded that micturition syncope most often is a benign phenomenon which should be distinguished from epilepsy. The patient may be advised to sit down during micturition, especially at night, but treatment is otherwise not necessary.

Economies of Capacity Use in Decontamination of Pig Carcasses

This article analyzes the economies of capacity use regarding hot water decontamination to reduce postslaughter risk of pathogens in meat, taking interfarm heterogeneities of Salmonella risk and costs of transportation into account, using Denmark as a case study. If risk reduction goals are stated at the processing plant level, then the exploitation of the favorable cost-effectiveness properties of hot water slaughtering requires fairly ambitious risk reduction goals and thus high use of decontamination capacity. If instead risk reduction goals are formulated for the sector as a whole, the cost-effectiveness properties can be exploited even for relatively low-risk reduction goals.

Economics of Food Consumption, Nutrition and Health

In most developed countries, there is a considerable concern for the health consequences related to food and lifestyle. Diseases like obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer are all related to food intake and physical behaviour, and these have been on the increase during the last half century. However, aspects other than overweight and obesity are relevant to nutrition and health, e.g. the intake of micronutrients. There are clear economic perspectives to these developments as also witnessed by an earlier doubleissue of Food Economics (2005), edited by W. Bruce Traill and Mario Mazzocchi. Since then, the research related to economics of food consumption, nutrition and health has been growing rapidly in many countries. The present issue presents some of the most recent research results in the field, with one theoretical overview and results from five empirical studies. Papers in this special issue were submitted to a double-blind review process. We would like to thank the authors of the papers and the reviewers for their efforts, commitment and cooperation in completing this issue.