5. Conclusions
The results of our study suggest that future strategies to mitigate
vaccination compliance deterioration should be focused on encouraging
veterinary organizations to continue and exert social pressures on the
farmers to vaccinate. The success of such a strategy probably depends on
the existing trust between the farmers and the veterinarians and the
robustness of the veterinary infrastructure. Veterinarians can also be
the main agents to educate farmers regarding the vaccine and the
disease. We also suggest that identifying and helping farmers who have
difficulties, either in manpower allocation or vaccine funding, may
increase vaccination compliance. Such strategies should be examined in
the future and their effectiveness should be critically evaluated. It is
also of interest to examine the change in beliefs of the veterinarians
themselves as time elapses from an epidemic of LSD as well as of other
infectious diseases. These will help to maintain high vaccination
compliance along time and prevent the recurrence epidemics.