Global Burden of Animal Diseases

The Global Burden of Animal Diseases (GBADs) programme is a collaborative project that aims to improve societal outcomes through the improvement of animal health and animal welfare investments at the global, national and farm levels. The burden of animal diseases will be put into an economic context, including the impacts at farm level, livelihoods and externalities linked with human and environmental health.

Prof. Paul Torgerson leads the Animal Health Loss Envelope (AHLE) Theme, which aims to estimate the magnitude of the animal health losses due to diseases and other potentially avoidable constraints on animal production. A utopian farming system with no net losses in livestock production and no expenditure on animal health will be established. The difference between this utopian farming system and the observed productivity in those systems is hypothesized to be the health loss. At a second stage, the attributable shares of the health loss caused by diseases and other constraints will be defined. Systematic literature review, economic modelling of livestock systems and farm budget analysis are some of the methods that will be used.

More details about the project can be found on the link.