Know more

Controlling infectious animal diseases often requires coordinated action between managers. For unregulated diseases, each farmer chooses whether or not to implement control measures. Individual decisions influence not only the health situation of the farm, but also that of the farms in contact (via trade, geographical proximity, etc.), either positively if control is effective, or negatively if control is not effective or if measures are ineffective. Guiding individual decisions would improve the collective health situation. However, the collective manager does not always know the direction to be taken for optimal coordination, which may moreover vary over time and between farms.

To facilitate the identification of an incentive system that adapts to the epidemiological situation and minimises the collective economic impact, a model has been proposed that determines the optimal incentive policy. This policy includes a very large number of rules. To make it readable and usable in practice, it is summarized by a simple action plan that evolves over time with the health situation.

As an example, this approach has been applied to the collective management of porcine respiratory dysgenic syndrome (PRDS), a viral disease that is endemic worldwide and has a major impact on pig production. The action plan identifies the optimal dynamic control modalities to eradicate the virus.

The model developed can be applied to any health disorder for which collective management is relevant. The resulting action plan provides a tool for collective animal health managers (producer groups / health organizations).

Partners : This work is part of the Investissement d'Avenir project ANR-10-BINF-07 (MIHMES), co-financed by the ERDF Pays de la Loire, coordinated by P. Ezanno of the BIOEPAR unit (INRA, Oniris), in partnership with the CESAER (AgroSup Dijon, INRA, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté) and GREYC (Normandie Univ., UNICAEN, ENSICAEN, CNRS).

Associated publication : Viet, A. F., Krebs, S., Rat-Aspert, O., Jeanpierre, L., Belloc, C., & Ezanno, P. (2018). A modelling framework based on MDP to coordinate farmers' disease control decisions at a regional scale. PloS One, 13(6), e0197612, http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197612

Contacts

Scientific contact :

•  Pauline Ezanno UMR BIOEPAR

Associated Department: Santé animale

Associated Centres : Pays de la Loire, Dijon Bourgogne Franche-Comté