Using iSIKHNAS for Budget Advocacy - PowerPoint Presentation

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Using iSIKHNAS for Budget Advocacy

3.3 Costs and benefits of animal health activities

Objectives for this session

At the end of this session you should be able to:

Describe methods for estimating the costs and benefits of animal health activities

Animal health activities

Animal health activities aim to reduce the overall cost of disease by:

Reducing the level of disease – fewer animals affected

For example anthrax vaccination in a district reduces the numbers of animals that die due to anthrax

Reducing the effects of disease – affected animals less likely to lose production or die

For example anthelminthic treatment will not prevent

helminth

infections but will reduce the numbers of animals severely affected or that die due to

helminthiasis

Eradicate the disease altogether – no ongoing cost due to disease but may be costs of ongoing biosecurity and surveillance

For example eradicating rabies would reduce ongoing costs due to animal and human cases but would still require ongoing border security to prevent re-introduction and surveillance for early detection and confirming freedom

Animal health activities can include:

Simple on-farm vaccination, treatment or other preventive or control measures to reduce

For example vaccination, antibiotic treatment, anthelminthic treatment

Major provincial or national programs

For example HPAI control, Rabies control or eradication, brucellosis eradication, anthrax vaccination

Actual activities will depend on nature of disease and purpose of the activity

Who pays/benefits

For small on-farm disease control the farmer meets the costs and is usually the one who gets any benefits (from reduced losses and better production)

For large scale regional or national programs:

the government meets many of the costs and the farmer meets some costs on individual affected farms (mainly lost production and sales).

The benefits are shared by farmers generally (less disease) and the community (less public health risk and improved product quality and availability)

Costs of animal health activities

Variable costs:

These are costs that vary depending on the number of animals treated, the number of farms affected and so on.

For example, testing costs, vaccinations, treatments, travel costs, needles/syringes

Fixed costs:

These are costs that have to be paid regardless of the numbers of farms/animals affected

For example permanent staff costs, vehicles, electricity, computers, office rent/maintenance

Examples of costs

Surveillance

Sample collection

Laboratory testing

Consumables

Staff and travel costs for surveillance

Costs of control

Vaccine, vaccination equipment, cold chains

Destruction and disposal costs

Disinfection and clean-up

Compensation

Record keeping, computers/printers

Operational costs

Staff, transport/fuel, daily allowances, training

Protective clothing, disinfectants

Animal handling (ropes, yards

?)

Animal identification

Tags, applicators,

etc

Certification of animal/herd status

Program management

Staff, equipment, materials

Steering committee(s)

Program monitoring and evaluation

Communications

Public awareness, industry consultation, focus groups

Farmer costs

Increased labour requirement

Increased vaccinations or other treatments

Lost production and sales

Example

Helminthiasis

is a problem in your area and many farmers use

anthelminthics

as a last resort rather than as a preventive

You are recommending that calves should be given 4 treatments each year at a cost of IDR 100,000 each time

For this simple program the cost is simply the cost of treatment = 4 x 100,000 = IDR 400,000 per animal

The farmer needs to get an average benefit of IDR 400,000 in extra meat for sale (fewer deaths and heavier animals) for the program to be worth doing

Benefits of animal health activities

The main benefit from an animal health activity is the reduction in losses due to the disease

Benefit = losses without program – losses with program

Need to know:

Existing levels of disease and effects on productivity

The effect of the animal health activity on the disease (reduction in prevalence)

The effect of the reduced level of disease on production (increased sales

)

Reduced indirect costs – changes in treatment/prevention costs

Savings in human health treatment costs, if appropriate

Example

For the

helminthosis

example:

Assume the farmer has 5 animals and is losing an average of IDR 5,000,000 each year (1,000,000 per animal) due to deaths or low body weight of animals sold (because of

helminths

) and

The proposed program will reduce this loss to IDR 1,000,000 per year or IDR 200,000 per animal

The benefit of the program is IDR 5,000,000 – 1,000,000 = IDR 4,000,000 (800,000 per animal)

This is more than the IDR 400,000 per animal for the program, so it is worth implementing the program

Discussion and questions?

Exercise

Work through example on-screen, with discussion

Participants can follow individually

or

in small

groups

on their computers

spreadsheet:

3.3

Costs and benefits of animal health

activities.xlsx

Scenario:

Follows on from previous abortions example – use similar values

A brucellosis vaccination program is proposed, to reduce the losses due to abortions (from brucellosis)

Costs and benefits are calculated for a single (first) year only as an example

Work through each worksheet and enter appropriate values

Program costs

Work through

Program costs

worksheet and fill in

suitable

values

and check calculations

Costs:

Cost of vaccination (per calf vaccinated) * numbers of calves to be vaccinated

Cost of extra staff – salary and operational costs (travel, expenses)

Cost of initial expenses (cold chain, training). This should really only be for the first year

Are there other costs that could be included?

Benefits from vaccination

Work through

Benefits from vaccination

worksheet and fill in suitable values (this is similar to previous example

)

Very similar to the previous abortion example

Discuss what each of the values and formulae

mean

Benefits arise from the reduction in number of abortions, most of the other values remain the same

Discussion and questions?

Compare

the total benefit to the expected total cost

of the program

Is

the program worth doing?

Are there costs or benefits that haven’t been included?

What difference would these make

Any further questions or comments?

Session summary

Costs of animal health programs

Fixed costs (overheads)

Variable costs – vary with number of animals or farms tested, vaccinated, treated or affected

Benefit = losses without program – losses with program