Wilma Steeneveld grew up on a dairy farm and has graduated from Wageningen 木瓜福利影视 in 2006. Subsequently, she did her PhD at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine on the detection of clinical mastitis with automatic milking systems. Subsequently, she worked for 5 years as a PostDoc researcher at the chair group Business Economics of Wageningen 木瓜福利影视. Since 2015 she is an assistant professor on Animal Health Economics at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. She is involved in research and teaching on this topic.
Animal Health Economics is an interdisciplinary research field that combines principles of economics, veterinary science, and epidemiology to assess the economic impacts of animal diseases and health interventions. It focuses on understanding the costs and benefits associated with disease prevention, control, and treatment in production animals. The field helps decision-makers (farmers, veterinarians, policymakers) to make informed decisions. Wilma primarily focuses on dairy but has recently become involved in research on pigs and poultry.
In this webinar an explanation is given about the research field "animal health economics":
Recently, the focus has shifted towards a multidimensional approach, so a Multidimensional Burden of Animal Diseases. She aims to expand the well-established economic decision support for animal health by integrating environmental impact, public health, and animal welfare into the analysis. Her vision is to move beyond a purely cost-benefit perspective, incorporating multiple burdens into the traditionally economics-driven decision support models. This approach will enable key decision-makers, such as farmers and veterinarians, to make more informed choices that not only enhance animal welfare and public health but also improve farmers' income and reduce environmental impact. Additionally, it will facilitate a more balanced evaluation of trade-offs across these different dimensions.
In this paper is explained how the other dimensions can be quantified in a more multidimensional approach.
Steeneveld, W; van den Borne, BHP; Kok, A; Rodenburg, TB; Hogeveen, H. 2024. Quantifying multiple burdens of dairy cattle production diseases and reproductive inefficiency- Current knowledge and proposed metrics. Journal of Dairy Science. 107: 11: 8765-8795.
Within the research field several calculation tools are developed to support dairy farmers and veterinarians in decisions on health and reproduction. For instance, to calculate costs of production diseases and a prolonged calving interval. These tools can be found here: Animal Health Economics - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine - Utrecht 木瓜福利影视
