Status Report on Education in Economics of Animal Health: Results from a European Survey

Education on the use of economics applied to animal health (EAH) has been offered since the 1980s. However, it has never been institutionalized within the educational courses for veterinarians and there is no systematic information on current teaching and education activities delivered in Europe. Nevertheless the need for economic skills in animal health has never been greater. Economics can add value to disease impact assessments; the understanding of people's incentives to participate in animal health measures; and refining resource allocation of public animal health budgets. The use of economics should improve animal health decision-making. An online questionnaire survey was conducted in European countries to assess current and future needs and expectations of people using EAH. The main conclusion from the survey is that education in economics appears to be inconsistently offered in Europe, and information about the availability of training opportunities in this field is scarce. There is a lack of harmonization of EAH education and significant gaps exist in the veterinary curricula of many countries. Respondents expressed concerns regarding the limited education on decision making and assessing impacts of animal diseases or using economics for general management depending whether respondents belonged to an educational institution, a public or a private body. Both public and private organizations indicated an increasing importance to the use of EAH in the future. This would motivate the development of teaching methods and materials which aim at developing the understanding of animal health problems for the benefit of students and professional veterinarians.