UC-CARE - Economic analysis of actions to control antibiotic resistance in humans and animals
Jørgen Dejgård Jensen is leader of a work package that aims at assessing economic sustainability of intervention strategies in livestock and provide support for decision-making by stakeholders and risk managers. The project is part of UC-CARE (University of Copenhagen Research Centre for Control of Antibiotic Resistance) that targets a number of complementary and interactive topics that are central in the fight against antibiotic resistance.
UC-Care provides new knowledge and solutions for enhanced diagnostics and antibiotic therapy of bacterial infections.
Antibiotics are essential in the cure of bacterial infections and have significantly contributed to reduce human mortality and improve animal healthcare over the last 50 years. However, antibiotic use in humans and animals has the unavoidable side effect to promote selection of resistant bacteria. The continuous spread of antibiotic resistance combined with the scarcity of new antibiotics requires a coordinated research effort.
UC-CARE is a platform for establishment of the much needed academia-industry partnerships in this area, made possible by a 4-year grant (4,374,174 euro) from the University of Copenhagen. The center is additionally financed with contributions by Zoetis (EURO 300,000), the Department of Veterinary Disease Biology (EURO 200,000), the Department of Food and Resource Economics (EURO 73,000), and The Center for Research in Pig Production and Health (EURO 133,000).
Work Package 5: Cost-benefit analysis and decision support for stakeholders
Main objectives
- Conduct cost-benefit analyses of alternative livestock production strategies to reduce the risk of developing antibiotic resistance in animals and humans,
- Policy recommendations regarding economically efficient strategies to reduce or change the use of antibiotics
- Identify critical factors for these strategies to be economically efficient and feasible at stakeholder and national level.
Task 5.1. Biological effects of on-farm risk mitigating strategies
Scientist in charge: Post Doc (IPH)
We will investigate biological effects relevant to production economics and human health of on-farm alternative risk mitigating strategies, compared to current practices involving antimicrobial treatment, including practices investigated in WP2 and WP4.
A key aim of the project will be to describe the associations between antibiotics use – and alternative - practices in livestock production on the one hand, and human and animal health risks due to antibiotic resistance on the other, and the development in these associations over time.
Practices to be analysed will be coordinated with WP2 and WP4, in order to enable economic perspectives on the strategies investigated in those two work packages.
The project will include reviews of existing literature, analysis of existing data and risk modelling, and development of partial budgeting model on biological and economic effects of risk mitigation measures at herd level, and the project will provide inputs (e.g. animal and human health risk effect estimates) to the economic analyses in task 5.2.)
Task 5.2. Economic effects of on-farm risk mitigating strategies at farm, sector and society level
Scientist in charge: Jørgen Dejgård Jensen (IFRO)
A 3-year PhD project will investigate economic effects of on-farm alternative risk mitigating strategies, at farm, sector and society level, based on inputs from task 5.1.
Whereas interest at the farm level is focused on effects affecting farm profitability, including animal growth and mortality, treatment costs and sales prices, analyses at the society level also address human health effects and the derived consequences for health care costs, absenteeism, labour productivity, mortality, etc. The task will address these issues of incentive-compatibility and lead to policy recommendations regarding economic feasibility and incentive-compatibility of alternative strategies to reduce antibiotics resistance risks.
The project will combine findings from existing literature with analysis of farm accounts data, budgeting models on farm-level economic effects of risk mitigation measures, economic modelling of the agricultural sector and cost analysis of human health consequences related to antibiotic resistance.
Furthermore, the project will be in close contact with activities in WP6 (Societal issues & governance) with regard to understanding e.g. the role of economic incentives in livestock producers’ practices regarding animal health care.
Researchers
Jørgen Dejgård Jensen
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jensen, Jørgen Dejgård | Professor | +4535336859 |
Funding
UC-CARE has received funding from UCPH Excellence Programme for Interdisciplinary Research
IFRO budget
1.750.000 DKK
Period
2013-2016
External members:
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Jonhatan Rushton (Royal Veterinary College, UK) | Professor |
| Henk Hogeveen (University of Wageningen, NL) | Professor |
| Liza Rosenbaum Nielsen (IPH), |
Professor |
| Lis Alban (IVS/DAFC) |
Affiliate professor |