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The Simpson Centre initiated a focus group for agricultural industry stakeholders in the Canadian poultry sector to gauge their opinions on the current interaction of this sector with policy, the challenges that are specific to this sector, and their short-term and long- term priorities . Most concerns and frustrations voiced by participants involved the restrictions of the supply management system; however, the focus group felt the system provided protections that made poultry farming economically feasible . Participants felt there was a lack of meaningful consultation between different levels of government and the poultry sector, resulting in rigid regulatory requirements, and furthermore that the tension between consumers’ demands for low-cost food and producers’ challenges supplying the industry at a low cost has resulted in the need for investment and prioritizations of innovative practices ., The School of Public Policy Publications, Vol. 16 No. 1 (2023)

The Simpson Centre initiated a focus group for agricultural industry stakeholders specifically in the Canadian beef sector to gauge their opinions on the current interaction of this sector with policy, the challenges that are specific to this sector, and their short-term and long-term priorities. The majority of concerns and frustrations that were voiced by participants involved a lack of parity and revenue flow between the various aspects of the beef industry, as well as a lack of accurate representation and industry knowledge by policy makers, which many believed had resulted in an abundance of red tape. Nearly all participants spoke to specific challenges they face within the sector that included the cold climate within Canada that makes it harder to compete on an international level and maintain the daily tasks of a producer, as well as challenges facing the longevity of the industry in Canada and incentivizing younger generations to join the sector., The School of Public Policy Publications, Vol. 16 No. 1 (2023)

Recent public policies aimed at reducing the use of antimicrobials in animal production have been successful when measured by the quantity of antimicrobial use, as usage has decreased in all production sectors. However, the key factors for the success of these policies and their socio-economic effects are poorly known. A qualitative survey conducted among the actors of the pig production unveils them., A paper for peer-reviewed publication is being prepared

The objective of the cost-calculator was to provide an universal and adaptable tool to calculate the costs of interventions for AMU in livestock, poultry and aquaculture production systems. The deterministic costing tool was developed in Microsoft Excel Professional Plus (2016) and consists on a series of steps in which the user will enter the required inputs specific to the production system and the type of intervention/s. This tool is adapted from the WHO costing and budgeting tool for National Action Plan (NAP) on antimicrobial resistance (AMR)1., Peer-review from this report is foreseen

Antimicrobials are extensively used in livestock and aquaculture, exacerbating the antimicrobial resistance pandemic. A lack of knowledge about alternatives to replace antimicrobials, and their effectiveness, hampers changes in farming practices. This work aimed to understand the impact of strategies to reduce antimicrobial usage in livestock, including aquaculture, under field conditions, using a structured scoping literature review. The PRISMA-ScR guidelines were followed and the PICOTS framework used. Articles were identified from Cab Abstracts, Medline and Scopus. A total of 7,505 articles were screened; 203 of which were included in the review. Given heterogeneity across articles in the way strategies were described, a qualitative synthesis was conducted. There were differences in the impacts of the strategies between and within species. Some options seem more promising than others, as their impacts were consistently equivalent or positive when compared to animal performance using antimicrobials. This work provides a data to address the identified data gaps., A paper is being prepared for peer-reviewed publication

Supplementary materials for the research paper to be published in Journal of Dairy Science: The marginal abatement cost of antimicrobials for dairy cow mastitis: A bioeconomic optimization perspective

The global agricultural sector often doesn���t get the attention it deserves, usually because of its secondary economic importance and because no major structural shifts in demand for agricultural commodities are expected. However, there is considerable variation between high-income and developing countries. If the world is to meet the UN���s Sustainable Development Goals, seven of which are closely related to agriculture, then the effects of agricultural production on local cultures, societies and environments need careful consideration. Applying the driver-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) framework helps in understanding interactions between actors and sectors, and overall in better designing agricultural policies. The DPSIR framework is a holistic approach to policy created by the European Environment Agency that facilitates the identification and description of processes and interactions in human-environmental systems. DPSIR recognizes agriculture as being multi-functional. The agricultural sector not only produces food, it also provides ecosystem services like pollination, pest control, soil conservation and biodiversity. Drivers such as food production, recreation and tourism, fulfil human needs but put pressure on the environment. Pressures are physical changes in the environment in response to drivers. These can range from land-use shifts to disease outbreaks to climate change. States are the sum of societal, economic and environmental functions measured with indicators. Measurements include a vast range of factors, including air and water quality, as well as job security, human well-being and agricultural production. Impacts are a direct result of changes in state for both the economy (e.g., employment, income, prices) and the environment (e.g., environmental damage, emissions, land improvement). Responses are intended to modify outcomes by changing human actions and mitigating undesirable results. Responses could be anything from reforming agricultural policies to designating protected areas to restricting emissions. DPSIR���s main tenet is that human societies and nature are interdependent. Since agriculture involves externalities associated with production and consumption, it���s important for policy-makers to adopt a systemic approach. DPSIR doesn���t directly consider ethics and equity. Some agricultural externalities are not constrained by borders and others affect future generations, so these factors must also be taken into account. Reliable, shared metrics must be carefully chosen and publicly available data are necessary to evaluate program outcomes., The School of Public Policy Publications, Vol. 14 No. 1 (2021)

Pour réduire l’usage des antibiotiques en élevage, divers travaux en sciences biotechniques visent à concevoir et identifier des solutions zootechniques ou thérapeutiques alternatives aux antibiotiques. Cependant, au-delà de ces solutions techniques, des facteurs humains et sociaux déterminent les décisions de prescrire et d’administrer ou non des antibiotiques. L’article met l’accent sur ces facteurs et dresse une synthèse des travaux menés en sciences humaines et sociales en France sur la réduction de l’usage des antibiotiques dans différentes filières animales et leurs contributions pour relever ce défi. Trois contributions majeures ont émergé, à différentes échelles. La première consiste en une meilleure compréhension des processus de changement de pratiques opérés par les éleveurs pour réduire l’usage des antibiotiques dans leur élevage : identification des freins et motivations des éleveurs pour opérer ce changement, caractérisation de trajectoires de changement y compris les contextes dans lesquels elles sont réalisées, et outils mobilises par les éleveurs pour y parvenir. Une seconde contribution porte sur la compréhension du rôle des réseaux d’acteurs des éleveurs dans ces processus de changement : rôle du conseiller d’élevage et du vétérinaire et de leur relation de travail avec l’éleveur ; rôle des pairs pour expérimenter de nouvelles pratiques. La dernière contribution porte sur la compréhension et la conception de modes de gouvernance collectifs pour réduire l’usage des antibiotiques en élevage : analyse de la prescription vétérinaire et de ses évolutions, du rôle des acteurs des filières pour une action concertée et de la dynamique impulsée par le plan ÉcoAntibio. Quelques pistes sont évoquées pour approfondir ces travaux., In order to decrease the use of antimicrobials on farms, various technical options target zootechnical solutions or alternative drugs. However, beyond these technical options, human and sociological factors determine the decision to prescribe and use antimicrobials. The paper focuses on these factors and provides an overview of research studies in the field of social sciences in France on the reduced use of antimicrobials in different animal species. Three major contributions emerged at different scales. The first one addresses the issue of the processes carried out by the farmers to change their practices for a decreased use of antimicrobials at the farm level: barriers and motivations of farmers, trajectories of change, as well as the context in which changes are performed and the tools used. The second contribution deals with the role of the social networks surrounding the farmers in this process: role of farm advisors and veterinarians and their relationships with farmers, as well as peer group activities to experiment new farming practices. The third contribution focuses on the understanding and design of collective modes of governance to reduce the use of antimicrobials: analysis of veterinary prescription practices and their ongoing developments, the role of farmers’ organizations and value chain actors for a concerted approach to reducing the use of antimicrobials, and the dynamic implemented with the EcoAntibio program. Various perspectives are presented for further developments in this field.

International audience; The literature contains an extensive panel of studies focusing on the costs of animal diseases. The losses of an agriculture holding can be influenced by many factors since farming is a complex system and diseases are closely interrelated. Meta-analysis can be used to detect effects (i.e., change in clinical mastitis losses here) across studies and to identify factors that may influence those effects. This includes the external validity of the published study results with regard to the input parameters and the internal validity of the study, particularly how other diseases related to the target disease were accounted for. Mixed-effect meta-regressions were performed to estimate the mean clinical mastitis losses per case across the literature and to elucidate to what extent clinical mastitis losses are influenced by (i) general factors, such as etiology; (ii) the types of losses that contribute to the total mastitis losses; and (iii) prices. In total, 82 observations from nine studies were included in the meta-analysis to assess mean clinical mastitis losses per case. The multivariate meta-regression showed that etiology significantly influenced the clinical mastitis loss per case. The mean loss was determined to be euro224 per case for all published etiologies. In detail, mean losses equalled euro457 and euro101 per case of clinical mastitis due to gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, respectively, and euro428 and euro74 per case of clinical mastitis due to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, respectively. Additionally, the mean loss obtained depended on whether diagnostic costs and reduced feed intake in cases of mastitis were included in the clinical mastitis loss calculation. The monetary values of labor cost, drug cost and culling cost, as well as treatment price (all included), significantly influenced the clinical mastitis losses per case. All other tested moderators were not associated with mastitis losses, highlighting the need for more standardized economic studies, for both methods and ways results are presented, and suggesting that the mastitis losses assessed in the literature cannot be extrapolated (limited external validity). Although meta-analyses are useful to overview the burden of diseases across studies, their ability to summarize extensive literature with various economic assessments is limited. These limitations in loss assessments also suggest the need to focus on management strategies rather than on pure monetary estimations of disease costs, at least for production diseases at the farm level.

Development of new biocides has dominated human responses to evolution of antibiotic and pesticide resistance. Increasing and uniform biocide use, the spread of resistance genes, and the lack of new classes of compounds indicate the importance of navigating toward more sustainable coevolutionary dynamics between human culture and species that evolve resistance. To inform this challenge, we introduce the concept of coevolutionary governance and propose three priorities for its implementation: (i) new norms and mental models for lowering use, (ii) diversifying practices to reduce directional selection, and (iii) investment in collective action institutions to govern connectivity. We highlight the availability of solutions that facilitate broader sustainable development, which for antibiotic resistance include improved sanitation and hygiene, strong health systems, and decreased meat consumption.