Economic simulation of the spread and control of animal diseases within the EpiMAN-project

Contagious animal disease outbreaks are of great economic importance. Decisions on how to control outbreaks have to be made taking into account many uncertainties. These uncertainties are included in a simulation model for the economic evaluation of foot-and-mouth disease control strategies. Starting point in the economic simulation is the spatial and stochastic simulation of disease spread. Important input parameters on disease spread are often difficult to obtain and therefore sensitivity and uncertainty analysis are very important tools in analysing different control strategies. The economic simulation is part of EpiMAN, a decision support system for the control of contagious animal disease outbreaks. 1. Introduction To maintain trading relationships with countries inside and outside the borders of the European Union (EU), countries increasingly require the disease free status to be obtained and maintained, without applying preventive vaccination programs. Especially in major expor..