Table 18.

Factors possibly causing costs in livestock due to infection with T. gondii.

Type of costs	Costs	Comments
Direct costs (production losses caused by disease)	Reduced milk yield	Only in dairy sheep and dairy goats
	Weight loss in infected animals	Caused by fever and inappetence
	Reduced fertility	Cause of an increased replacement rate and retardation of the breeding progress
	Abortion/stillbirth	Cause of an increased replacement rate, loss of sells (e.g. lamb sells) and in retardation of the breeding progress
	Increased mortality	Reduced profit due to loss of animals and increased replacement rate
	Prolonged fattening periods in infected animals	Additional costs for feeding and reduced profit
	Weak or malformed progeny	Loss of progeny that causes additional costs, e.g. if a caesarian section has to be carried out or animals need veterinary service
Indirect costs (reaction to disease)	Optimization of herd management	Improvements in biosecurity, hygiene and farm buildings
	Treatment of diseased animals	Cost for veterinarian, drugs, etc.
	Control measures	For example vaccination
	Monitoring and diagnosis	For example costs for sampling and laboratory testing (also to achieve a differential diagnosis); testing of animals before housing
	Slaughter of infected animals	For example in animals with reduced fertility, increase in replacement costs
	Impact on trade (both national or international)	For example if meat of infected animals would be excluded from slaughter for specific meat products, or if international trade becomes restricted to avoid introduction of virulent types of T. gondii