Socio-psychological veterinary epidemiology. A new discipline for an old problem

This paper reviews past evidence on the social dimension of animal health management. Socio-psychological veterinary epidemiology is the study of human behaviour that affects the causes, spread, prevention and control of animal diseases and health problems. Animal health is becoming an increasingly important topic and there is a large body of literature on veterinary and epidemiological approaches to increase our knowledge about animal health and to design animal health interventions. Yet, managing animal health isto a large extent a farm level issue. Ultimately, veterinary and epidemiological solutions and interventions towards better animal health are to be implemented by farmers. As a consequence, researchers have started to study the behaviour of farmers and other stakeholders relating to the implementation of animal health management practices (AHMP). Very recently, the veterinary and epidemiological domain has experienced a rapid increase in behavioural studies investigating the human factor in animal health decisions.


Inspired by the term social epidemiology, the field that covers research on human attitudes, perceptions and practices influencing human health, we suggest to use the term socio-psychological veterinary epidemiology (SPVE) for this relatively new domain within veterinary epidemiology. As with any developing discipline, it is, from time to time, appropriate to adopt a rear view at both the findings and especially at the assumptions, approaches and methodologies of past studies, in order to provide recommendations for the future development and usefulness of the evolving discipline. This paper provides a literature review of the bulk of past SVPE studies, with two objectives. The first is to summarize and –if possible– draw some universal conclusions on motives, barriers, values and factors that affect how humans manage animal health and welfare in farming systems. The second objective of this literature review is to critically assess the approaches and methods that have been applied and the type of questions that have been studied, in order to provide suggestions for future progress of this discipline, both from a scientific point of view and in terms of the relevance and usefulness of the studies for practical implications.