Economic evaluation of policy measures for animal welfare and biosecurity in animal breeding, and their effect on the reduction of antimicrobial resistance in the environment and along the food supply chain

This study aims to analyze the public costs associated with the ClassyFarm system as a tool for monitoring antibiotic use in livestock farming. ClassyFarm is a digital platform developed in 2018 which operates by applying business intelligence processes to farm-level data to generate scores related to proper drug use, the implementation of adequate biosecurity protocols and compliance with animal welfare standards. Specifically, assessing the prudence of veterinary drug use by farmers allows for the estimation of each farm's risk of developing and spreading AMR microbial strains. Based on the system’s structure, the economic evaluation considered the following parameters related to costs: - Development and updating of the ClassyFarm system; - Control activities carried out by official veterinarians for data collection on ClassyFarm farms; - Acquisition and integration of information from other official databases. Although including a benefits assessment would have strengthened the study, such analysis was limited to a qualitative approach due to the nature of the ClassyFarm system. Although the system is intended to support farmers with decision-making data to improve farm management, its use is not legally mandated, making it challenging to directly link observed improvements to its implementation. Potential benefits for the public sector—such are difficult to quantify, as they are influenced by various factors beyond the system. A theoretical monetary assessment of the system’s benefits would require estimating the worth of the information it provides, based on users’ willingness to pay for access in the absence of a centralized infrastructure. However, this approach is prone to valuation bias, shaped more by users’ perceptions of pharmacosurveillance policies than by the system itself. Despite the technical limitations described above, this economic assessment offers an original, scientifically grounded insight into public spending on surveillance programs, which is crucial for future policy-making in the context of shrinking global healthcare budgets.