2294 part 1 final report.pdf - Agra CEAS Consulting

Prevention and control of animal diseases worldwide
Part I: Economic analysis: prevention versus outbreak costs
4. Literature review: synthesis of main findings
4.1. The economics of animal health: state of the art
To date, the economic dimension of animal health has been relatively under-explored within the analytical
framework of production economics. The reasons why this has been the case have been extensively
covered by literature (see, for example A17 and A115) and include:
• The complex impact of animal diseases: while direct impacts are more straightforward to
quantify, the more subtle implications of these diseases (indirect impacts, spill-over and ripple
effects) have been more difficult to approach.
• The complexity of livestock systems compared to crop systems, due inter alia to longer cycles
(generally over a year full cycle compared to most annual crop systems).
• The fact that many livestock systems are an integral component of mixed farm systems,
particularly in developing countries. This often constrains analysis to examining impacts at farm
or household level only.
The economic impact assessment of animal diseases and disease control is generally carried out at two
levels:
1. The micro-economic level of the herd or farm household;
2. The macro-economic levels of the sector, the country or internationally.
Our review has focused mostly on the macro-economic analysis (A17, A28, A68, A81, A82, A232).
A range of tools and methods are available under this heading, including economic surplus methods,
mathematical programming, and simulation and systems analysis. The over-arching framework which all
these methods and tools appear to feed into is an analysis of costs and benefits (although not always in the
strict sense of a cost-benefit analysis, or CBA, as applied in project appraisal as such 37 ). It is argued that, if
the subject of the analysis is long-term disease control programmes at the national or regional levels, CBA
is the analytical structure of choice 38 . CBA is typically carried out to evaluate and compare between
37 It is not possible here to provide a full description of the techniques of Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA). The reader is
referred to suitable texts such as those by Gittinger (1982), Irwin (1978), and Dasgupta and Pearce (1978). Gittinger
J.P. (1982). Economic Analysis of Agricultural Projects. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Irwin, G.
(1978). Modern Cost-Benefit methods. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Dasgupta and Pearce (1978):
Cost-benefit analysis: theory and practice. Macmillan, London.
38 See for example, Dijkhuizen, Huirne and Jalvingh (1995): Economic analysis of animal diseases and their control.
Prev. Vet. Med., 25, 135-149.
Civic Consulting • Agra CEAS Consulting 40