Hogeveen H, Van Der Voort M
Rev Sci Tech. 2017 Apr;36(1):217-226. doi: 10.20506/rst.36.1.2623.
A large part of the world's resources are used to produce animal products. Efficient use of these resources is important to improve social well-being. Endemic animal diseases decrease production efficiency, because they require a higher level of input to produce the same amount of output or result in a lower output with the same amount of input. The optimal level of production with and without disease differs from farm to farm and depends on varying economic circumstances. Given these difficulties, making an accurate theoretical estimation of the economic impact of endemic diseases is challenging. Current approaches towards the economic assessment of endemic diseases are, therefore, quite pragmatic. For on-farm decision-making, the total costs consist of failure costs and preventive costs. Failure costs are associated with production losses (i.e. decreases in milk production, mortality and culling), treatment costs (i.e. veterinary treatment, drugs, and discarded milk) and the use of other resources associated with the occurrence of disease (i.e. increased labour costs). Preventive costs are associated with preventive measures in terms of equipment, consumables (e.g. diagnostics and chemicals) and the use of other resources to prevent diseases (i.e. increased labour). There is a substitution relationship between failure costs and preventive costs. That means that, in order to maximise profit at the farm level, the amount of resources invested in prevention should be chosen in such a way that total costs are minimised. The most studied endemic disease in animal production is mastitis. Most publications on mastitis only assess failure costs, and studies on assessing the total costs and best methods to determine an optimal level of prevention are scarce. Future challenges lie in researching frameworks that can assist decision-makers to establish optimal prevention levels for endemic diseases.
世界上很大一部分资源被用于生产动物产品。有效利用这些资源对于改善社会福祉至关重要。地方性动物疾病会降低生产效率，因为生产等量产出需要更高水平的投入，或者在投入相同的情况下导致产出更低。有无疾病时的最佳生产水平因农场而异，并且取决于不同的经济环境。鉴于这些困难，对地方性疾病的经济影响进行准确的理论估计具有挑战性。因此，目前对地方性疾病进行经济评估的方法相当务实。对于农场决策而言，总成本包括失败成本和预防成本。失败成本与生产损失（即牛奶产量下降、死亡率和淘汰率）、治疗成本（即兽医治疗、药物和废弃牛奶）以及与疾病发生相关的其他资源的使用（即劳动力成本增加）相关。预防成本与设备、消耗品（如诊断试剂和化学品）方面的预防措施以及用于预防疾病的其他资源的使用（即劳动力增加）相关。失败成本和预防成本之间存在替代关系。这意味着，为了在农场层面实现利润最大化，应选择投入预防的资源量，以使总成本最小化。动物生产中研究最多的地方性疾病是乳腺炎。大多数关于乳腺炎的出版物仅评估失败成本，而评估总成本以及确定最佳预防水平的最佳方法的研究很少。未来的挑战在于研究能够帮助决策者确定地方性疾病最佳预防水平的框架。
