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Abstract
The new EU Animal Health Strategy suggests a
shift in emphasis away from control towards prevention
and surveillance activities for the management of threats
to animal health. The optimal combination of these
actions will differ among diseases and depend on largely
unknown and uncertain costs and benefits. This paper
reports an empirical investigation of this issue for the
case of Avian Influenza. The results suggest that the
optimal combination of actions will be dependent on the
objective of the decision maker and that conflict exists
between an optimal strategy which minimises costs to
the government and one which maximises producer
profits or minimises negative effects on human health.
From the perspective of minimising the effects on
human health, prevention appears preferable to cure
but the case is less clear for other objectives.