Economic and social impact of animal diseases: experiences, challenges and new approaches

Abstract

Animal diseases have always heavily influenced human health, animal production and international trade. However, not until the second half of the past century were research efforts directed towards an interdisciplinary approach to this issue,
thus creating new disciplines such as animal health economics, veterinary public health and preventive veterinary medicine. In this paper, the authors review the development of current veterinary control approaches and their achievements and deficiencies with special emphasis on infectious, emerging, zoonotic and transboundary diseases. Further on, we evaluate economic, social and political consequences of animal diseases that have occurred during the recent epidemics. In our conclusion, we evaluate/predict future challenges and the needs for new approaches to research the methods of animal disease control.