The world economic crisis has highlighted a need to reassess public resource allocation for animal health services, and to question the balance of cost sharing with the private sector. Added to this general economic context, animal diseases are emerging with increasing frequency (BSE, influenza viruses, blue tongue, Schmallenberg virus) and existing diseases have re-emerged.
Therefore animal health professionals need to have an understanding of the application of economics to animal health, and the current economic crisis makes the need for these skills all the more urgent.
Educational materials for under-/postgraduate and practicing animal health professionals are inadequately developed and rarely institutionalised. NEAT’s aim is to enable a wider cadre of people to teach economics and to create educational materials in order to promote the best use of economics by animal health professionals. Existing educational material and activities are therefore mapped and future needs and gaps are identified. The NEAT consortium designs and develops educational materials and methods, disseminates them to partners and end-users, and assesses the impact of the materials developed.