The new standards of economics applied to animal health - first results of a French research network

Economics of animal health (EAH) is of high interest for stakeholders and decision makers in agriculture (see NEAT project). Up to now, efforts in this growing scientific domain emerged form scattered initiatives, with a weak coordination between the society questions and the
research developments, and also between the various research sciences involved. To improve this, an interdisciplinary research network entitled Economic reasoning for improved animal health was created in 2016 by INRA to help co-build a shared and interdisciplinary vision of
EAH. This ongoing network is organized around regular workshops, open to researchers and representatives of the sectors. First findings and outcomes are reported here. First discussions revealed a high heterogeneity of stakeholders demand, including disease cost approaches and better understanding of actor behaviors. They also highlighted the need for promoting mutual understanding between scientific domains on the basis of existing advances in economics. This point serves as red line for the following sessions. The first workshop dealt with concepts in economics of production. This field was considered to be founder for EAH and to provide huge improvements for the understanding of the
dynamics in the production decisions, including the determinants and consequences of health disorders and decisions. The economics of production is seen as of interest for questions around animal health ranging from farm level to chain level, providing answers for disease
costs, best strategies to be retained and assessment of financial incentives for animal health management. Environmental economics is at the core of the 2nd workshop. This domain can be applied to externalities such as (i) antimicrobial use in animal production and (ii) strategic behaviors in the case of infectious diseases when private actions are dependent on neighborhood decisions. The 3rd topic is planned to focus on parallels with the economics of human health.