Rift valley fever

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Rift valley fever

by sourav4gmat » Sat Oct 27, 2012 5:42 am
From GMAT paper of Manhattan Review guide.
Q. Outbreaks of rift valley fever occur irregularly in East Africa, several years apart. When outbreaks do occur, they kill thousands of cattle. A livestock vaccine against the disease exists but is rarely used. It is too expensive for farmers to use routinely, and since it is not effective until a month after vaccination, administering it after an outbreak begins helps very little. Nevertheless, experts predict that the use of vaccine will increase significantly within the next few years.

Which of the following if true, provides the strongest justification for the experts' prediction?

a. Rift valley fever is spread by mosquitoes, but each outbreak is so widespread that it is impractical to control it by using insecticides.
b. When an outbreak of rift valley fever occurs, unaffected countries often refuse to import livestock from countries affected by the outbreak.
c. It would take less than a month for producers of the vaccine to adjust their production operations to cope with the large increase in demand.
d. Many cattle farmers in east Africa are nomadic or live in remote villages, and such farmers, who have little access to modern veterinary medicine, are particularly hard hit by outbreaks of rift valley fever.
e. Recently published research has shown that certain identifiable climatic conditions are almost invariably followed, within 2 to 5 months, by na outbreak of Rift valley fever.

The correct answer according to our instructor is e

Here is how I worked it out.

[spoiler]a:[/spoiler] If this is true, farmers will use the vaccine now they will not wait for few more years. Hence incorrect
[spoiler]b:[/spoiler] What the livestock are used for is beyond the scope. Hence incorrect
[spoiler]c:[/spoiler] Adjustment in prod operations CAN cause the cost to come down. but since it is not effective until a month after vaccination its of no use. Hence partially correct
[spoiler]d:[/spoiler] The passage doesn't suggest anything about the nomadic farmers settling down in future. Hence irrelevant.
[spoiler]e:[/spoiler] Even if farmers come to know about the outbreak of the fever in advance, if the vaccines are expensive they cannot afford it. Hence partially correct.

Can anyone please explain what makes e a better option than c
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by gmatwar13 » Sat Oct 27, 2012 7:10 am
i picked e as well..

c says production operation can be coped within a month. But it dosn't resolve frequency of administration of vaccine. Neither does it say that outbreak can be predicted. if disease outbreaks and cattle gets sick it's useless to administer the vaccine and even if you administer just after outbreak does it counter the cost factor as you don't know how many times it will outbreak..
d) attacks on frequency of disease outbreak hence making it more likely for farmers to use vaccine.

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by sourav4gmat » Sat Oct 27, 2012 7:47 am
I agree with the argument about why option:c is incorrect.

But the only reason that prevents me from picking e are the following words in the argument: It is too expensive for farmers to use routinely. Option e doesn't provide a solution for this problem

However, reading it again, i view the word routinely in the argument and am thinking that may be the farmers can use the vaccine occasionally because of the cost factor which makes option e relevant.

Request EXPERTS to suggest if the thought-process is correct.