Table 1.

Resistance and responses to ovine Johne’s disease (OJD) change management on Australian sheep farms

Source of resistance	Leadership and behavioral strategy required	Example of successful farmer response
Loss of control of animal health management: failure to act by embracing self-determination.	Encourage participation and incorporate choice in decision making relating to vaccination and biosecurity, eg, continually promote OJD knowledge based on evidence.	Farmers willing to seek diagnosis and obtain prevalence and control information to embrace interventions to improve farming system, including vaccination and biosecurity.
Excessive uncertainty on disease risks: rejection of advised intervention, as it is costly and outside previous experience.	Admit uncertainties with disease-control strategies, but provide a clear vision and details of research aimed at providing clarity, with expected timelines, eg, applied research on OJD vaccine efficacy.	Farmer communicates and engages with other stakeholders to foster an open dialogue, including visits to sites where interventions have been successfully embraced, and needs, concerns, and successes openly discussed.
Surprises from imposed decisions: anxiety from lack of ownership of required interventions without sufficient time to prepare for the consequences.	Creation and sharing of information that minimizes surprise plus time to adapt to interventions, including need to incorporate OJD vaccine in routine management, eg, evidence of persistent OJD vaccine use.	Clear discussion or contribution to participatory research and extension on vaccine efficacy, with communication of expected results and benefits of interventions in public dialogue.
Loss of reputation from positive diagnosis: failed businesses need acknowledgment that biosecurity practices have been insufficient.	Provision of strategies that address deficiencies of past practices and particularly failures of biosecurity, eg, promotion of more effective OJD biosecurity measures.	Provide a forum that enables “victims” to share their concerns and have skeptics’ misinformation addressed with evidence-based information that remedies mistakes of the past, yet making it clear that the world has changed.
Competence concerns: new information required to address disease risks, but basic understanding of disease model is lacking.	Positive reinforcement in clear language to ensure participants able to engage with new strategies, but not feel their skills obsolete, eg, implementing risk-based trading.	Implement gradual change from old to new technologies, demonstrating commitment to provision of abundant information, education, training, mentoring, and support systems.
More work required: uncertainties best addressed by applied research and extension.	Make requirements, standards, and benefits clear, rewarding pioneers, innovators, and supporters and identifying “champions”, eg, enroll cooperators and early adopters in OJD field trials, surveys, field days, and workshops.	Link biosecurity to livestock production to ensure livelihood gains are clear, with champion farmers recruited to support promotion of appropriate interventions.
Ripple effects of changes required: leading to unexpected outcomes and push back from external sources.	Identify threats early and provide open discussion on expected impacts with all stakeholders, eg, risk-based trading requirements.	Identify new opportunities with a broader range of stakeholder groups outside initial boundaries and engage in open dialogue, providing support and assistance.
Past resentments arise: change implementation required, but focus remains on scapegoating.	Acknowledgment of past mistakes required, but need to move forward promoted, eg, OJD regulatory failures and counseling.	Recognize resentments of the past exist and letting their grievances be declared so as to enable their “moving on”.
Threats from new technologies: replacing old strategies required.	Avoid creating obvious losers, but also candor from the outset, eg, new diagnostic tests, vaccines, OJD-control strategies.	Offset losses with identification of opportunities, including promotion of lower disease risk as an efficiency gain for production and sustainable profitability.

Note: Adapted with permission Young JR, Evans-Kocinski S, Bush RD, Windsor PA. Improving smallholder farmer biosecurity in the Mekong region through change management. Transbound Emerg Dis. Epub November 8, 2013.¹⁵ © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.