THE NATURE OF ANIMAL HEALTH ECONOMICS IN RELATION TO VETERINARY EPIDEMIOLOGY

Animal health economics is being formally integrated into such institu tions as sub-Saharan African universities and Veterinary Services. Unf ortunately, the nature of the relationship between economics and epide miology is not clearly understood. Economics has an extensive theoreti cal apparatus and an array of methods and techniques. Animal health ec onomics has two interrelated branches: economics for the planning and management of animal health services and economic analysis of diseases and interventions. Epidemiology and economics, although separate scie ntific areas, are complementary when the goal is efficient management of animal health and associated delivery systems. In performing econom ic analyses, an 'economic model' should determine data requirements (e pidemiological and socio-economic), as such analyses invariably requir e epidemiological inputs. The core concepts in economic analysis are a s follows: conceptual models, opportunity cost of resources, marginal analysis and partial analysis. Important methods include statistical m odels, mathematical programming, budgets, cost minimisation, decision analysis, variants of cost-benefit analysis and simulation. Given the nature of animal health economics, veterinarians who want to practice as economists need a thorough training in economic principles and meth ods, in addition to training in basic epidemiology.