Economic evaluation of antimicrobial use practices in animal agriculture: a case of poultry farming

Background The growing evidence of the contribution of antimicrobial use (AMU) in animal agriculture to the public health threat of antimicrobial resistance has highlighted to policymakers the importance of the need for prudent AMU in animal production. Livestock farming is an economic process, where farmers are using inputs such as antimicrobials to minimize their losses. Objectives Using a large and unique dataset combining time-series data on economic performance and health records in conventional broiler production in France, we identify how improved healthcare management and disease prevention impact economic performance, AMU reduction and health outcomes. Methods We analyse the main characteristics of the economic performance of farms measured by the profit per m(2), by performing advanced regression models investigating the relative importance of medication and veterinary procedures. Results In our study, 50% of the treatments (expressed as number of new treatments) are attributable to only 30% of all flocks. There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between AMU and economic performance. This finding implies that the marginal profit of antimicrobials is decreasing, meaning that using antimicrobials is only profitable up to a certain threshold. Results also show that the profit increases as the number of preventive treatments increase. Conclusions Our findings suggest that policies encouraging farmers to work upstream from the occurrence of disease have the potential to perform better than regulations, as they would maintain a profitable activity while diminishing AMU. Encouraging adequate infection control practices by subsidizing or providing other incentives would benefit farmers and society.