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Illustrated with review studies on animal health economics, this book presents information on the most important economic tools applied to livestock, covering both theory and practical applications. Topics covered include gross margin analysis, partial budgeting, investment and financial appraisal and cost-benefit analysis. There are also sections on decision tree analysis, optimisation methods, value chain analysis, new institutional economics, DALYs and a range of policy analysis tools. International experts contribute on important theoretical and practical aspects of animal health and production economics, with global themes on livestock and poverty.

Lameness is one of the most costly dairy cow diseases, yet adoption of lameness prevention strategies remains low. Low lameness prevention adoption might be attributable to a lack of understanding regarding total lameness costs. In this review, we evaluated the contribution of different expenditures and losses to total lameness costs. Evaluated expenditures included labor for treatment, therapeutic supplies, lameness detection and lameness control and prevention. Evaluated losses included non-saleable milk, reduced milk production, reduced reproductive performance, increased animal death, increased animal culling, disease interrelationships, lameness recurrence and reduced animal welfare. The previous literature on total lameness cost estimates was also summarized. The reviewed studies indicated that previous estimates of total lameness costs are variable and inconsistent in the expenditures and losses they include. Many of the identified expenditure and loss categories require further research to accurately include in total lameness cost estimates. Future research should focus on identifying costs associated with specific lameness conditions, differing lameness severity levels, and differing stages of lactation at onset of lameness to provide better total lameness cost estimates that can be useful for decision making at both the herd and individual cow level.

Animal diseases in production and subsistence environments have the potential to negatively affect consumers, producers, and economies as a whole. A growing global demand for animal sourced food requires safe and efficient production systems. Understanding the burden of animal disease and the distribution of burden throughout a value chain informs policy that promotes safe consumption and efficient markets, as well as providing more effective pathways for investment. This paper surveys existing knowledge on the burden of animal disease across economic categories of production, prevention and treatment, animal welfare, and trade and regulation. Our scoping review covers 192 papers across peer-reviewed journals and reports published by organizations. We find there exists a gap in knowledge in evaluating what the global burdens of animal diseases are and how these burdens are distributed in value chains. We also point to a need for creating an analytical framework based on established methods that guides future evaluation of animal disease burden, which will provide improved access to information on animal health impacts.

Table 1 Direct validation demonstrating differences (in percent) in price between the price at the veterinary clinic (web) and the price-comparison site (vetpris.se, VP) for cat and dog gonadectomy for two countries. There was a major problem with the exchange rate from the Danish prices from the price comparison site and minor problem with the exchange rates for the Norwegian prices from the price comparison site. The standardised price at VP concerns a dog has its testes, or the uterus and the ovaries, or only the ovaries removed. There was a major problem with the exchange rate from the Danish prices from the price comparison site and minor problem with the exchange rates for the Norwegian prices from the price comparison site. The Abstract included an exchange rate error within theResultssection.

Economic implications of livestock diseases extend far beyond direct treatment costs and affect productivity, trade, and public health. Despite the growing recognition of animal health economics, a comprehensive analysis of its research landscape has been lacking. Therefore, this study employs bibliometric techniques to systematically analyze research on the economics of animal health between 2000 and 2024 using data extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection. A total of 1070 peer-reviewed publications were analyzed to map publication trends, influential authors, research themes, and international collaborations. The results showed that after 2014, the research output increased steadily to a peak in 2018, thus illustrating the increased global interest in economic evaluations of livestock diseases. The USA, UK, and the Netherlands emerged as key contributors, whereas low-income regions showed low research output, indicating an equity gap for animal health economics studies. The most frequently used keywords were “economics”, “cost–benefit analysis”, “economic impact”, “foot-and-mouth disease”, and “vaccination”, with increasing focus on zoonotic diseases. Coauthorship network analysis demonstrated that the institutions are well connected in Europe and North America, but research from developing countries has remained mostly fragmented. However, notable research gaps were discovered: advanced modelling approaches were underutilized, and the translation of economic research into policy was limited. This work highlights the increasing interdisciplinary nature of animal health economics, while emphasizing the need for broader species coverage, stronger international collaboration, and deeper methodological innovation. These insights provide a foundation for guiding future research priorities and shaping evidence-based policies in animal health economics.

Working equids provide a crucial contribution to the livelihoods and food security of communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Nevertheless, they are a neglected category within animal health policies and interventions of governmental and non-governmental institutions. This critical review aims to assess the socioeconomic impact of diseases of working equids in LMICs. By highlighting the implications of diseases on working equid welfare, human wellbeing and livelihoods, this review seeks to sensitise policymakers within governments and international organisations to develop policies and interventions aimed at protecting the health of working equids and, consequently, the health and livelihoods of their dependent communities. Twenty relevant publications were identified through the search of five databases (CAB Abstracts, Web of Science Core Collection, BIOSIS, EMBASE and Scopus), backward citation searching and screening of indexes of proceedings and Special Issues retrieved from the database search. The review findings show that diseases of working equids have detrimental socioeconomic effects. However, this subject is under-researched and restricted to few diseases and geographical settings. Considering the complexity of the issue, this review demonstrates that the ‘One Health’ approach represents an opportunity to clarify the link between equid health, human wellbeing and livelihoods, facilitating the translation of research into policy.

Bovine mastitis is a dairy cattle disease with high economic impact. Subclinical mastitis (SCM) contributes to most of the financial losses. Colombia dairy sector accounts for 2.3% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 24.3% of the livestock GDP. Milk production reaches 6,500 million liters/year from nearly 500,000 cattle farms and is mainly based on small-scale production systems. This study evaluates the financial impact of SCM and the potential for its control in three dairy farm strata in a region in Colombia. The objectives of the study were 1) to determine the perception of farmers about the SCM problem on their farms, 2) to assess prevalence and financial impact of SCM on farms and in the “Area five” sanitary region of the Bogota plateau, and 3) to assess costs and effectiveness of control methods of SCM. Information about disease management and decision-making process was obtained through a participatory epidemiology workshop and applying a semi-structured survey. A two-stage stratified cross sectional epidemiological study was conducted on dairy cattle from a region with approximately 400 farms and 12,000 cows, with a sample size of 55 farms. Prevalence of SCM was calculated by defining a cow as positive for the disease when any quarter had a somatic cell count (SCC) higher than 250 × 103 cells/ml. The prevalence of SCM in cows was 55.2%; significant differences were found between strata. Assessment of the financial impact of SCM in terms of milk losses was conducted using spreadsheet models. Milk production losses per farm ranged from 1.3% to 13.5%, and the economic impact in the region was estimated over USD $800.000 per year. The financial impact was greater in small- and medium-sized farms than large farms, and it was associated with the severity of SCC per quarter. Principal component analysis showed interactions, irrespective of the individual effect, and suggested three main groups of control interventions: application of basic milking hygiene practices, increase in the level of hygiene practices and veterinary advice, and SCM diagnosis and dry-cow treatment. Lack of information on management and production at farms promotes intuitive decision-making. Further research for the deeper understanding of intervention costs and effectiveness is suggested.

This scoping review identifies and describes the methods used to prioritize diseases for resource allocation across disease control, surveillance, and research and the methods used generally in decision-making on animal health policy. Three electronic databases (Medline/PubMed, Embase, and CAB Abstracts) were searched for articles from 2000 to 2021. Searches identified 6, 395 articles after de-duplication, with an additional 64 articles added manually. A total of 6, 460 articles were imported to online document review management software ( sysrev.com ) for screening. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, 532 articles passed the first screening, and after a second round of screening, 336 articles were recommended for full review. A total of 40 articles were removed after data extraction. Another 11 articles were added, having been obtained from cross-citations of already identified articles, providing a total of 307 articles to be considered in the scoping review. The results show that the main methods used for disease prioritization were based on economic analysis, multi-criteria evaluation, risk assessment, simple ranking, spatial risk mapping, and simulation modeling. Disease prioritization was performed to aid in decision-making related to various categories: (1) disease control, prevention, or eradication strategies, (2) general organizational strategy, (3) identification of high-risk areas or populations, (4) assessment of risk of disease introduction or occurrence, (5) disease surveillance, and (6) research priority setting. Of the articles included in data extraction, 50.5% had a national focus, 12.3% were local, 11.9% were regional, 6.5% were sub-national, and 3.9% were global. In 15.2% of the articles, the geographic focus was not specified. The scoping review revealed the lack of comprehensive, integrated, and mutually compatible approaches to disease prioritization and decision support tools for animal health. We recommend that future studies should focus on creating comprehensive and harmonized frameworks describing methods for disease prioritization and decision-making tools in animal health.

Background Increasingly exposed to emerging sanitary risks, extensive livestock farming systems are confronted with the imperative of incorporating biosecurity measures in their production models in order to limit the risk of introduction and diffusion of animal pathogens. Yet, ex-ante assessment methods of the likelihood of biosecurity measures implementation are poorly documented. Our study aimed at comparing alternative methods of elicitation of preferences to assess the attitude of extensive livestock farmers towards biosecurity measures. We used, as a case study, the Regional Porcine Sanitary Plan (RPSP) elaborated for the free-range pig sector of Corsica Island to meet the newly established national disease prevention requirements of France in the face of risk of African Swine Fever introduction. Methods The RPSP imposed (1) a fencing of the breeding pigs’ area, (2) the neutering of the pigs not used for breeding, and (3) a management process of dead pigs’ carcasses found on pastures. We evaluated four attributes of the sanitary plan, including (1) proportion of the implementation cost covered by state subsidies, (2) mandatory carcass management, (3) people allowed to neuter gilts, (4) the age limit for neutering. We performed interviews of a sample of free-range pig farmers using three methods in parallel, namely (1) direct qualitative elicitation, (2) attributed-based stated choices and (3) semi-quantitative ranking of attributes. Results Farmers’ preference for a high subsidization of the sanitary plan and for enforcing the neutering of pigs at an early age was consistent across all used methods. Participants expressed heterogeneous preferences for the two other attributes. Half of the respondents were reluctant to entrust veterinarians with neutering gilts while the other half deemed veterinarians’ intervention compulsory. Contradictory preferences were obtained on rendering carcass management mandatory depending on the elicitation method. Conclusion Our study demonstrates the added value of using choice-based methods, where respondents weigh the individual costs and benefits associated with different options, in combination with qualitative or semi-quantitative ranking methods in which farmers express their opinions and give more consideration to their community interest. It also reveals potential issues of heterogeneities among farmers’ preferences that need to be taken into consideration in similar surveys.