The economics of antimicrobial resistance in veterinary medicine: Optimizing societal benefits through mesoeconomic approaches from public and private perspectives

Didier Raboisson; Ahmed Ferchiou; Pierre Sans; Guillaume Lhermie; Marie Dervillé

doi:10.1016/j.onehlt.2020.100145

The economics of antimicrobial resistance in veterinary medicine: Optimizing societal benefits through mesoeconomic approaches from public and private perspectives

One Health. 2020 Jun 5:10:100145. doi: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2020.100145. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Authors

Didier Raboisson¹, Ahmed Ferchiou¹, Pierre Sans², Guillaume Lhermie¹, Marie Dervillé³

Affiliations

¹ IHAP, Université de Toulouse, INRA, ENVT, Toulouse, France.
² UR 1303 ALISS, INRA, Ivry-sur-Seine 94205, France.
³ Université de Toulouse, LEREPS, ENSFEA, IEP de Toulouse, France.

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health threat driven by a combination of factors, including antimicrobial use (AMU) and interactions among microorganisms, people, animals and the environment. The emergence and spread of AMR in veterinary medicine (AMR-V) arising from AMU in veterinary medicine (AMU-V) can be linked to individuals' economic behaviour and institutional context. We highlight the limitations of current microeconomic approaches and propose a mesoeconomic conceptual model of AMR-V that integrates actors' strategic and routine behaviours in their context from a dynamic perspective using the concepts of externality, globality and futurity. The global solution to AMR-V management relies on a trade-off between i) the global externality assessment of AMU-V with respect to AMR-V (public perspective) and ii) farm- or value chain-level marginal abatement cost evaluation (private perspective). The improvements realized by the proposed mesoeconomic conceptual model include i) the simultaneous fight against the emergence and spread of AMR-V and ii) a local decrease in AMU-V without any loss of competitiveness for private actors due to the development of adequate production standards. A set of generic equations describing the stepwise change in the scale of analysis is finally proposed. This original contribution to the global challenge of AMR through a mesoeconomic approach bring substantial improvement for better AMU. This model can be considered a way to smoothly promote institutional change and a call for public policies that support public private partnership in the development of adequate incentives. The model requires further development prior to its application in a given value-chain or territory.

Keywords: AMR, Antimicrobial resistance; AMR-H, AMR in human medicine; AMR-V, AMR in veterinary medicine; AMU, Antimicrobial use; AMU-H, AMU in human medicine; AMU-V, AMU in veterinary medicine; AMs, Antimicrobials; Antimicrobial resistance; Economics; Food animal production; Veterinary.