A New Tool to Assess the Economic Impact of Q Fever on Dairy Cattle Farms.

To support farmers in their decisions related to Q fever, a dedicated economic assessment tool is developed. The present work describes the calculator, its economic rationale, and the supporting assumptions. The calculator integrates a yearly compartmental model to represent population dynamism and the main interactions between disorders linked to Q fever, especially reproductive disorders (abortion, retained foetal membranes, purulent vaginal discharge and endometritis, extra services, and calving-conception delays). The effects of the nontangible cost of the disease on human health, the welfare of the animals, and the workload of farmers were not integrated into the model. The model shows high-level sensitivity to the prevalence of Q fever in the herd prevaccination and to the costs of abortion and extra days of calving-conception intervals. Breakeven points, i.e., cost values that allow us to achieve positive vaccination benefits, are also reported. For herds with moderate or high prevalence rates of Q fever prevaccination (>30%), a vaccination benefit is observed. The vaccine should be considered a type of insurance in herds with low prevalence rates of Q fever prevaccination (≤20%). The calculator was developed to aid decision-making at the farm level, and no conclusion can be extrapolated as a generic trend based on the present work.

Strategies to reduce antimicrobials in livestock and aquaculture, and their impact under field conditions: a structured scoping literature review.

Antimicrobial resistance is a pandemic problem, causing substantial health and economic burdens. Antimicrobials are extensively used in livestock and aquaculture, exacerbating this global threat. Fostering the prudent use of antimicrobials will safeguard animal and human health. A lack of knowledge about alternatives to replace antimicrobials, and their effectiveness under field conditions, hampers changes in farming practices. This work aimed to understand the impact of strategies to reduce antimicrobial usage (AMU) in livestock and aquaculture, under field conditions, using a structured scoping literature review. The Extension for Scoping Reviews of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines (PRISMA-ScR) were followed and the Patient, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, Time and Setting (PICOTS) framework used. Articles were identified from CAB Abstracts, MEDLINE and Scopus. A total of 7505 unique research articles were identified, 926 of which were eligible for full-text assessment; 203 articles were included in data extraction. Given heterogeneity across articles in the way alternatives to antimicrobials or interventions against their usage were described, there was a need to standardize these by grouping them in categories. There were differences in the impacts of the strategies between and within species; this highlights the absence of a 'one-size-fits-all' solution. Nevertheless, some options seem more promising than others, as their impacts were consistently equivalent or positive when compared with animal performance using antimicrobials. This was particularly the case for bioactive protein and peptides, and feed/water management. The outcomes of this work provide data to inform cost-effectiveness assessments of strategies to reduce AMU.

Cost of lameness in dairy herds: An integrated bioeconomic modeling approach.

Foot disorders are costly health disorders in dairy farms, and their prevalence is related to several factors such as breed, nutrition, and farmer's management strategy. Very few modeling approaches have considered the dynamics of foot disorders and their interaction with farm management strategies within a holistic farm simulation model. The aim of this study was to estimate the cost of foot disorders in dairy herds by simulating strategies for managing lameness. A dynamic and stochastic simulation model (DairyHealthSim) was used to simulate the herd dynamics, reproduction management, and health events. A specific module was built for lameness and related herd-level management strategies. Foot disorder occurrences were simulated with a base risk for each etiology [digital dermatitis (DD), interdigital dermatitis, interdigital phlegmon, sole ulcer (SU), white line disease (WLD)]. Two state machines were implemented in the model: the first was related to the disease-induced lameness score (from 1 to 5), and the second concerned DD-state transitions. A total of 880 simulations were run to represent the combination of the following 5 scenarios: (1) housing (concrete vs. textured), (2) hygiene (2 different scraping frequencies), (3) the existence of preventive trimming, (4) different thresholds of DD prevalence detected and from which a collective footbath is applied to treat DD, and (5) farmer's ability to detect lameness (detection rate). Housing, hygiene, and trimming scenarios were associated with risk factors applied for each foot disorder etiologies. The footbath and lameness detection scenarios both determined the treatment setup and the policy of herd observance. The economic evaluation outcome was the gross margin per year. A linear regression model was run to estimate the cost per lame cow (lameness score ≥3), per case of DD and per week of a cow's medium lameness duration. The bioeconomic model reproduced a lameness prevalence varying from 26 to 98% depending on the management scenario, demonstrating a high capacity of the model to represent the diversity of the field situations. Digital dermatitis represented half of the total lameness cases, followed by interdigital dermatitis (28%), SU (19%), WLD (13%), and interdigital phlegmon (4%). The housing scenarios dramatically influenced the prevalence of SU and WLD, whereas scraping frequency and threshold for footbath application mainly determined the presence of DD. Interestingly, the results showed that preventive trimming allowed a better reduction in lameness prevalence than spending time on early detection. Scraping frequency was highly associated with DD occurrence, especially with a textured floor. The regression showed that costs were homogeneous (i.e., did not change with lameness prevalence; marginal cost equals average cost). A lame cow and a DD-affected cow cost €307.50 ± 8.40 (SD) and €391.80 ± 10.0 per year on average, respectively. The results also showed a cost of €12.10 ± 0.36 per week-cow lameness. The present estimation is the first to account for interactions between etiologies and for the complex DD dynamics with all the M-stage transitions, bringing a high level of accuracy to the results.

The Marginal Abatement Cost of Antimicrobials for Dairy Cow Mastitis: A Bioeconomic Optimization Perspective.

Maintaining udder health is the primary indication for antimicrobial use (AMU) in dairy production, and modulating this application is a key factor in decreasing AMU. Defining the optimal AMU and the associated practical rules is challenging since AMU interacts with many parameters. To define the trade-offs between decreased AMU, labor and economic performance, the bioeconomic stochastic simulation model DairyHealthSim (DHS)© was applied to dairy cow mastitis management and coupled to a mean variance optimization model and marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) analysis. The scenarios included three antimicrobial (AM) treatment strategies at dry-off, five types of general barn hygiene practices, five milking practices focused on parlor hygiene levels and three milk withdrawal strategies. The first part of economic results showed similar economic performances for the blanked dry-off strategy and selective strategy but demonstrated the trade-off between AMU reduction and farmers' workload. The second part of the results demonstrated the optimal value of the animal level of exposure to AM (ALEA). The MACC analysis showed that reducing ALEA below 1.5 was associated with a EUR 10,000 loss per unit of ALEA on average for the farmer. The results call for more integrative farm decision processes and bioeconomic reasoning to prompt efficient public interventions.

Economic evaluation of antimicrobial use practices in animal agriculture: a case of poultry farming.

Background: The growing evidence of the contribution of antimicrobial use (AMU) in animal agriculture to the public health threat of antimicrobial resistance has highlighted to policymakers the importance of the need for prudent AMU in animal production. Livestock farming is an economic process, where farmers are using inputs such as antimicrobials to minimize their losses. Objectives: Using a large and unique dataset combining time-series data on economic performance and health records in conventional broiler production in France, we identify how improved healthcare management and disease prevention impact economic performance, AMU reduction and health outcomes. Methods: We analyse the main characteristics of the economic performance of farms measured by the profit per m2, by performing advanced regression models investigating the relative importance of medication and veterinary procedures. Results: In our study, 50% of the treatments (expressed as number of new treatments) are attributable to only 30% of all flocks. There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between AMU and economic performance. This finding implies that the marginal profit of antimicrobials is decreasing, meaning that using antimicrobials is only profitable up to a certain threshold. Results also show that the profit increases as the number of preventive treatments increase. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that policies encouraging farmers to work upstream from the occurrence of disease have the potential to perform better than regulations, as they would maintain a profitable activity while diminishing AMU. Encouraging adequate infection control practices by subsidizing or providing other incentives would benefit farmers and society.

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Assessing Social Acceptance of Strategies to Reduce Antimicrobial Use in the French Dairy Industry.

To respond to the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threat, public health entities implement policies aiming to reduce antimicrobial use (AMU) in livestock systems, in which policy success and sustainability might be subject to the social acceptability of the novel regulatory environment. Therefore, consistent methods that gather and synthesize preferences of stakeholder groups are needed during the policy design. The objective of this study was to present a methodology for evaluating the acceptability of potential strategies to reduce AMU using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) using French dairy industry as a model. Preference-ranking organization methods for enrichment evaluations were applied to rank stakeholders' acceptance of four different potential AMU reduction strategies: 1. Baseline AMU regulations in France; 2. Total interdiction of AMU; 3. Interdiction of prophylaxis and metaphylaxis AMU; and 4. Subsidies to reduce AMU by 25%. A total of 15 stakeholders (consumers, n = 10; farmers, n = 2; public health representatives, n = 3) representing the French dairy sector and public health administration participated in the acceptance weighting of the strategies in relation with their impact on environmental, economic, social, and political criteria. We established a MCDA methodology and result-interpretation approach that can assist in prioritizing alternatives to cope with AMR in the French dairy industry or in other livestock systems. Our MCDA framework showed that consumers and public health representatives preferred alternatives that consider the restriction of AMU, whereas farmers preferred to maintain baseline policy.

Individual Behaviors and COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Strategy: A Mid-Term Multidimensional Bio-economic Modeling Approach.

As of mid-2020, eradicating COVID-19 seems not to be an option, at least in the short term. The challenge for policy makers consists of implementing a suitable approach to contain the outbreak and limit extra deaths without exhausting healthcare forces while mitigating the impact on the country's economy and on individuals' well-being. To better describe the trade-off between the economic, societal and public health dimensions, we developed an integrated bioeconomic optimization approach. We built a discrete age-structured model considering three main populations (youth, adults and seniors) and 8 socio-professional characteristics for the adults. Fifteen lockdown exit strategies were simulated for several options: abrupt or progressive (4 or 8 weeks) lockdown lift followed by total definitive transitory final unlocking. Three values of transmission rate (Tr) were considered to represent individuals' barrier gesture compliance. Optimization under constraint to find the best combination of scenarios and options was performed on the minimal total cost for production losses due to contracted activities and hospitalization in the short and mid-term, with 3 criteria: mortality, person-days locked and hospital saturation. The results clearly show little difference between the scenarios based on the economic impact or the 3 criteria. This means that policy makers should focus on individuals' behaviors (represented by the Tr value) more than on trying to optimize the lockdown strategy (defining who is unlocked and who is locked). For a given Tr, the choices of scenarios permit the management of the hospital saturation level with regard to both its intensity and its duration, which remains a key point for public health. The results highlight the need for behavioral or experimental economics to address COVID-19 issues through a better understanding of individual behavior motivations and the identification of ways to improve biosecurity compliance.

The economics of antimicrobial resistance in veterinary medicine: Optimizing societal benefits through mesoeconomic approaches from public and private perspectives.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health threat driven by a combination of factors, including antimicrobial use (AMU) and interactions among microorganisms, people, animals and the environment. The emergence and spread of AMR in veterinary medicine (AMR-V) arising from AMU in veterinary medicine (AMU-V) can be linked to individuals' economic behaviour and institutional context. We highlight the limitations of current microeconomic approaches and propose a mesoeconomic conceptual model of AMR-V that integrates actors' strategic and routine behaviours in their context from a dynamic perspective using the concepts of externality, globality and futurity. The global solution to AMR-V management relies on a trade-off between i) the global externality assessment of AMU-V with respect to AMR-V (public perspective) and ii) farm- or value chain-level marginal abatement cost evaluation (private perspective). The improvements realized by the proposed mesoeconomic conceptual model include i) the simultaneous fight against the emergence and spread of AMR-V and ii) a local decrease in AMU-V without any loss of competitiveness for private actors due to the development of adequate production standards. A set of generic equations describing the stepwise change in the scale of analysis is finally proposed. This original contribution to the global challenge of AMR through a mesoeconomic approach bring substantial improvement for better AMU. This model can be considered a way to smoothly promote institutional change and a call for public policies that support public private partnership in the development of adequate incentives. The model requires further development prior to its application in a given value-chain or territory.

Economic effects of policy options restricting antimicrobial use for high risk cattle placed in U.S. feedlots.

The rising public health threat of antimicrobial resistance, the influence of food service companies, as well as the overall lack of positive image of using medical products in intensive farming are major drivers curbing antimicrobial use. In the future, government policies may affect practices of antimicrobial use in beef production in feedlots, a prominent current user of antimicrobials in animal agriculture, but also the agricultural industry generating the highest cash receipt in the U.S. Our objective was to estimate the cost effect from the following policies in feedlots: 1) using antimicrobials for disease prevention, control, and treatment; 2) using antimicrobials only for treatment of disease; and 3) not using antimicrobials for any reason. We modelled a typical U.S. feedlot, where high risk cattle may be afflicted by diseases requiring antimicrobial therapy, namely respiratory diseases, liver abscesses and lameness. We calculated the net revenue loss under each policy of antimicrobial use restriction. With moderate disease incidence, the median net revenue loss was $66 and $96 per animal entering the feedlot, for not using antimicrobials for disease prevention and control, or not using any antimicrobials, respectively, compared to using antimicrobials for disease prevention, control, and treatment. Losses arose mainly from an increase of fatality and morbidity rates, almost doubling for respiratory diseases in the case of antimicrobial use restrictions. In the case of antimicrobial use prohibition, decreasing the feeder cattle price by 9%, or alternatively, increasing the slaughter cattle price by 6.3%, would offset the net revenue losses for the feedlot operator. If no alternatives to antimicrobial therapy for prevention, control and treatment of current infectious diseases are implemented, policies that economically incentivize adoption of non-antimicrobial prevention and control strategies for infectious diseases would be necessary to maintain animal welfare and the profitability of beef production while simultaneously curbing antimicrobial use.

How do veterinarians influence sales of antimicrobials? A spatial-temporal analysis of the French prescribing-delivery complex in cattle.

BACKGROUND: In animal agriculture, antimicrobials (AM) are used to control infectious diseases whose incidence and severity vary across production systems, but may contribute to select AM resistant bacteria, potentially disseminating in humans. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents a public threat, leading policymakers to implement measures to reduce antimicrobial use (AMU). Investigating AMU patterns at prescriber's level, beyond national AMU trends, enables evaluation of substitutions between AM classes (occurring when one product is replaced by another), or average consumption per production system. Our aim was to identify the influence veterinarians would exert on AMU by quantifying substitution between AM products prescribed and delivered in similar therapeutic indications, in cattle production. METHODS: Monthly sales data on four critically important AM in five French areas (representative of production systems) were analysed from 2008 to 2013. We calculated the animal live weight receiving a treatment course and evaluated substitutions between brand-name and generic products, and between products from different AM classes with similar indications. RESULTS: Substitutions occurred, between products of the same class (macrolides) with similar indications, between generic and brand-name products (fluoroquinolones, ceftiofur, florfenicol) and between innovative and brand-name products (marbofloxacin, ceftiofur). Innovative products reaching the market represented between 2% and 40% of the yearly sales for a given molecule, depending on the active ingredient and the area. The introduction of generic products of fluoroquinolones and ceftiofur led to a moderate adoption of the generic product at the expense of the brand-name one, unlike in human health care where the adoption reaches up to 80%. CONCLUSION: Veterinary prescription remains a strong regulating power of AMU; substitutions only occurred for products with similar indications.

Epidemiological factors and mitigation measures influencing production losses in cattle due to bovine viral diarrhoea virus infection: A meta-analysis.

Infection with bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is associated with a loss in productivity in cattle farms. Determining which factors influence monetary losses due to BVDV could facilitate the implementation of mitigation measures to reduce the burden of BVDV. Mixed-effect meta-analysis models were performed to estimate the extent to which the costs of mean annual BVDV production losses per animal may be influenced by epidemiological factors such as BVDV introduction risk, initial prevalence, viral circulation intensity and circulation duration (trial 1). Additionally, changes in mean annual BVDV production losses per animal due to specific mitigation measures (i.e., biosecurity, vaccination, testing and culling, cattle introduction or contact with neighbouring cattle herds) were analysed (trial 2). In total, 19 studies were included in the meta-analysis to assess mean annual BVDV production losses. The mean annual direct losses were determined to be €42.14 per animal (trial 1). The multivariate meta-regression showed that four of the previously mentioned epidemiological factors significantly influenced the mean annual BVDV production losses per animal. Indeed, the per animal costs increased to €67.19 when these four factors (trial 1) were considered as "high or moderate" compared to "low". The meta-regression analysis revealed that implementation of vaccination and biosecurity measures were associated with an 8%-12% and 28%-29% decrease in BVDV production losses on average, respectively, when simulated herds were compared with or without such mitigation measures (trial 2). This reduction of mean annual BVDV production losses per animal due to mitigation measures was partially counteracted when farmers brought new cattle on to farm or allowed contact with neighbouring cattle herds. The influencing mitigation factors presented here could help to guide farmers in their decision to implement mitigation strategies for the control of BVDV at farm level.

Defining health standards through economic optimisation: The example of colostrum management in beef and dairy production.

There is extensive literature addressing acceptable practices of colostrum distribution to new-born calves; however, no economic analyses are available concerning the profitability of this practice. Moreover, the health standards associated with colostrum management have been defined through the observation of reference farms without explicit reference to economic assessments. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the profitability of farm colostrum management and to define the optimal economic situations for given livestock systems and farm situations. The herd-level net value was calculated using the value of calf products, the cost of passive transfer failure and the cost of prevention. This value was determined for various beef and dairy scenarios and the various time periods spent managing colostrum. The maximal net values defined the optimal economic situations and enabled the determination of the optimal times for colostrum management and respective health standards (i.e., the prevalence of disorders at optimum). The results showed that the optimal time farmers should spend on colostrum management is approximately 15 min per calf. Furthermore, farmers should err on the side of spending too much time (> 15 min) on colostrum management rather than not enough, unless the cost of labour is high. This is all the more true that potential long term consequences of passive transfer failure on milk yields were not accounted for here due to scarcity of data, leading to consider this time threshold (15 min) as a minimal recommendation. This potential underestimation may arise from the greater nutrient content and bioactive compounds identified in colostrum although the passive immune transfer is here defined through immunoglobulins only. The present results show that for small farms that cannot hire colostrum managers, this work can be performed by the farmer after subcontracting other tasks. Moreover, the method proposed here-the definition of health standards through economic optimisation-is a promising approach to analysing health conventions in the cattle industry.

Marginal cost of the calving interval in beef cows is not uniform.

To understand the profitability of reproduction management measures, an economic assessment based on a beef cow life simulation was proposed. It accounted for the discounted feeding costs of the dam and its calves for the different periods of their lives up to their sale and for the overall production from calves adjusted by mortality and culling. The calibration was proposed for various combinations of typical French and European situations. The maximal cash flow was observed for the lowest calving interval, corresponding to the maximal number of calves produced. The marginal cost of the calving interval was not uniform: on average, it was twice as high at a calving interval of 360 days (€1/day) as at 500 days (€0.5/day). It was also higher when age at first calving was lower and when culling was late or the replacement rate was low. The results were sensitive to the costs of the calves' diets and to the market prices for calves. These assessments may assist the evaluation of the profitability of various measures taken in the field when faced with deteriorating calving intervals in beef production.

Economic Synergy between Dry Cow Diet Improvement and Monensin Bolus Use to Prevent Subclinical Ketosis: An Experimental Demonstration Based on Available Literature.

The prevention of subclinical ketosis (SCK) is based on maintaining adequate nutrition in dairy cows during the dry period and close to calving. Recently, an oral-route monensin bolus to prevent SCK was approved in Europe. The present study aims to define the allocation of resources for SCK management at the herd level and evaluate the profitability of administering monensin boluses in cows at risk for SCK. A stochastic model was used to calculate the total cost of SCK for a population with a given prevalence of cows at risk for SCK. This model included the ability of the farmer to correctly target and preventatively treat these cows at risk for SCK. The results clearly demonstrated economic synergy between two management practices. First, reducing the prevalence of cows at risk for SCK dramatically reduces the total cost of SCK and seems profitable in most situations. Second, monensin bolus use to reduce the occurrence of SCK in cows already at risk for SCK is cost-effective. The results also highlighted three economic strategies to manage SCK in the dairy industry in Europe. First, monensin bolus use throughout an entire herd when the prevalence of cows at risk for SCK is high is only profitable in the short-term as a tool to correct acute deterioration at the herd level. Second, decreasing the prevalence of cows at risk for SCK through adequate feeding in the dry period is of financial interest as a baseline strategy when prevalence is high, assuming moderate additional cost linked to the new diet. Third, monensin bolus use when the prevalence of cows at risk for SCK is low is also profitable as a long-term strategy when only cows at high risk for SCK (such as cows that are over-conditioned, old, or have a previous history of SCK-related disorders) are targeted for preventative treatment. Authors suggest to use the present results considering that farmers have a correct, but not perfect, ability to target animals to be preventively targeted with the monensin bolus. Further work is required to facilitate the early identification of cows at risk for SCK.

The Impact of Farmers' Strategic Behavior on the Spread of Animal Infectious Diseases.

One of the main strategies to control the spread of infectious animal diseases is the implementation of movement restrictions. This paper shows a loss in efficiency of the movement restriction policy (MRP) when behavioral responses of farmers are taken into account. Incorporating the strategic behavior of farmers in an epidemiologic model reveals that the MRP can trigger premature animal sales by farms at high risk of becoming infected that significantly reduce the efficacy of the policy. The results are validated in a parameterized network via Monte Carlo simulations and measures to mitigate the loss of efficiency of the MRP are discussed. Financial aid to farmers can be justified by public health concerns, not only for equity. This paper contributes to developing an interdisciplinary analytical framework regarding the expansion of infectious diseases combining economic and epidemiologic dimensions.

Failure of Passive Immune Transfer in Calves: A Meta-Analysis on the Consequences and Assessment of the Economic Impact.

Low colostrum intake at birth results in the failure of passive transfer (FPT) due to the inadequate ingestion of colostral immunoglobulins (Ig). FPT is associated with an increased risk of mortality and decreased health and longevity. Despite the known management practices associated with low FPT, it remains an important issue in the field. Neither a quantitative analysis of FPT consequences nor an assessment of its total cost are available. To address this point, a meta-analysis on the adjusted associations between FPT and its outcomes was first performed. Then, the total costs of FPT in European systems were calculated using a stochastic method with adjusted values as the input parameters. The adjusted risks (and 95% confidence intervals) for mortality, bovine respiratory disease, diarrhoea and overall morbidity in the case of FPT were 2.12 (1.43-3.13), 1.75 (1.50-2.03), 1.51 (1.05-2.17) and 1.91 (1.63-2.24), respectively. The mean (and 95% prediction interval) total costs per calf with FPT were estimated to be €60 (€10-109) and €80 (€20-139) for dairy and beef, respectively. As a result of the double-step stochastic method, the proposed economic estimation constitutes the first estimate available for FPT. The results are presented in a way that facilitates their use in the field and, with limited effort, combines the cost of each contributor to increase the applicability of the economic assessment to the situations farm-advisors may face. The present economic estimates are also an important tool to evaluate the profitability of measures that aim to improve colostrum intake and FPT prevention.

Integration of production and financial models to analyse the financial impact of livestock diseases: a case study of Schmallenberg virus disease on British and French dairy farms.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to investigate and compare the financial impact of Schmallenberg disease for different dairy production types in the United Kingdom and France. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Integrated production and financial models for dairy cattle were developed and applied to Schmallenberg virus (SBV) disease in a British and French context. The five main production systems that prevail in these two countries were considered. Their respective gross margins measuring the holding's profitability were calculated based on public benchmarking, literature and expert opinion data. A partial budget analysis was performed within each production model to estimate the impact of SBV in the systems modelled. Two disease scenarios were simulated: low impact and high impact. RESULTS: The model gross margin obtained per cow space and year ranged from £1014 to £1484 for the UK and from £1037 to £1890 for France depending on the production system considered. In the UK, the net SBV disease costs in £/cow space/year for an average dairy farm with 100 milking spaces were estimated between £16.3 and £51.4 in the high-impact scenario and between £8.2 and £25.9 in the low-impact scenario. For France, the net SBV disease costs in £/cow space/year ranged from £19.6 to £48.6 in the high-impact scenario and £9.7 to £22.8 in the low-impact scenario, respectively. CONCLUSION: The study illustrates how the combination of production and financial models allows assessing disease impact taking into account differing management and husbandry practices and associated price structures in the dairy sector. It supports decision-making of farmers and veterinarians who are considering disease control measures as it provides an approach to estimate baseline disease impact in common dairy production systems in the UK and France.

Status report on education in the economics of animal health: results from a European survey.

Education on the use of economics applied to animal health (EAH) has been offered since the 1980s. However, it has never been institutionalized within veterinary curricula, and there is no systematic information on current teaching and education activities in Europe. Nevertheless, the need for economic skills in animal health has never been greater. Economics can add value to disease impact assessments; improve understanding of people's incentives to participate in animal health measures; and help refine resource allocation for public animal health budgets. The use of economics should improve animal health decision making. An online questionnaire was conducted in European countries to assess current and future needs and expectations of people using EAH. The main conclusion from the survey is that education in economics appears to be offered inconsistently in Europe, and information about the availability of training opportunities in this field is scarce. There is a lack of harmonization of EAH education and significant gaps exist in the veterinary curricula of many countries. Depending on whether respondents belonged to educational institutions, public bodies, or private organizations, they expressed concerns regarding the limited education on decision making and impact assessment for animal diseases or on the use of economics for general management. Both public and private organizations recognized the increasing importance of EAH in the future. This should motivate the development of teaching methods and materials that aim at developing the understanding of animal health problems for the benefit of students and professional veterinarians.

Cost assessment of the movement restriction policy in France during the 2006 bluetongue virus episode (BTV-8).

This study aims at evaluating the costs of the movement restriction policy (MRP) during the 2006 BTV-8 epidemic in France for the producers of 6-9 month old Charolais beef weaned calves (BWC), an important sector that was severely affected by the restrictions imposed. This study estimates the change in the number of BWC sold that was due to the movement restrictions, and evaluates the economic effect of the MRP. The change in BWC sold by producers located inside the restriction zone (RZ) was analyzed for 2006 by using a multivariate matching approach to control for any internal validity threat. The economic evaluation of the MRP was based on several scenarios that describe farms' capacity constraints, feeding prices, and the animal's selling price. Results show that the average farmer experienced a 21% decrease in animals sold due to the MRP. The economic evaluation of the MRP shows a potential gain during the movement standstill period in the case of no capacity constraint faced by the farm and food self-sufficiency. This gain remains limited and close to zero in case of a low selling price and when animals are held until they no longer fit the BWC market so that they cannot be sold as an intermediate product. Capacity constraints represent a tremendous challenge to farmers facing movement restrictions and the fattening profit becomes negative under such conditions. The timing and length of the movement standstill period significantly affect the profitability of the strategy employed by the farmer: for a 5.5 month-long standstill period with 3.5 months of cold weather, farmers with capacity constraints have stronger incentives to leave their animals outside during the whole period and face higher mortality and morbidity rates than paying for a boarding facility for the cold months. This is not necessarily true for a shorter standstill period. Strategies are also sensitive to the feed costs and to the food self-sufficiency of the farm. Altogether, the present work shows the farmer's vulnerability to animal movement restrictions and quantifies the costs of the standstill. These results should assist decision-makers who seek to calculate adequate subsidies/aid or to efficiently allocate resources to prevent future outbreaks.