Economics of animal health is principally concerned with the allocation of resources in the control of animal diseases and the management of health and welfare problems, from individual animals and local herds to the national herd and international disease control efforts. Residents have discussed many times (at residents meetings, and on the ECVPH Slack) that economics of animal health has been part of the syllabus which they have struggled to complete and gain competency.

We propose a course for residents that will cover all their needs and subsequently generate research papers. If the course is a success, we would like to run it annually so that it can an integral part of ECVPH residencies. Post COVID-19, we would aim to run it as a residential course, combining field trips with practical workshops.

The online course runs over three weeks with a single day of teaching each week. The course would be a mixture of lectures, discussion groups, and coursework. The main areas taught will be:

• Baseline economic information and disease burden measures
• Understanding inputs vs outputs
• Interventions and tools assessing them (Budget, cost benefit analysis etc)
• Resource allocation
• Value chain analysis vs risk analysis

By the end of the course the residents will have drafted a short communication about economics in relation to their own field research. Post the course we would encourage them to collaborate further and support them turning their communications into a scientific publication.

Aim: For each student to gain an understanding of the economics of animal-health, to the extent that they would be comfortable performing their own research in the field. We would aim for all components of Part 1C3 of the syllabus and select parts of Part 2 (PM) B2 would be covered, so that it would be of interest to both sections of the college.

Objective: Each student will draft a short scientific communication about economics related to their own research. This would enable each student the ability to publish in the field of animal health economics and thus show practical competencies needed for their resident training.

Contact: Dr John Tulloch – Tenure Track Fellow, Third Year Resident of the ECVPH

Further information to be timely provided!