Determinants of access to animal health care in France: evidence from a spatial econometric framework

Abstract Over the last two decades, concerns have arisen in the veterinary profession about the declining number of food animal veterinarians. Based on a One Health perspective which recognizes that the health of people, animals, and their environment are interconnected, the French policymakers implemented a set of policies to combat the veterinarian shortage in the food animal sector that may cause public health crises. However, public interventions are unlikely to succeed in combating the veterinarian shortage unless they are preceded by a relevant understanding of the main determinants underlying this shortage. This paper contributes to identifying the main factors of the veterinarian shortage in 2019 in the French cattle sector using databases that integrate French veterinary clinics, farm characteristics and socio-economics features, and a spatial econometrics framework. Our results highlighted, first, strong and positive spatial autocorrelation in terms of veterinarian shortage between observations. Second, favorable socio-economic characteristics of a region were associated with a reduction in veterinarian shortage. Third, proximity to urban regions was associated with a decreased veterinarian shortage. Based on these findings, we provided some recommendations to policymakers.