Economic Principles and Concepts for the Veterinary Sciences (online)

Diseases have a significant influence on animal production and animal trade. The economic consequences of diseases on an animal, herd and national level can be considerable and need to be investigated to successfully implement and evaluate animal health programs and policies. Many economic tools have been developed and are currently being applied to support decisions concerning animal health. This online course will enable you to gain a basic knowledge of economic concepts and theory, thereby enabling you to better understand animal health economics and to apply economic tools more effectively.

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

• have a basic overview and understanding of the broad subject of animal health economics
• discuss the role that economics play in the field of animal production

In particular, you should be able to:

• understand the economic decisions made by consumers by learning about the forces that influence consumer behavior, the concept of market demand and the concept of elasticity of demand
• understand the supply side of the market, as reflected in resource use and the production response of businesses (production function theory) and their reflection in the market supply curve
• understand the mechanisms behind clearing market prices as they are determined under perfect and imperfect competition conditions
• understand some of the background of the governmental role in food production and the ways in which the government can be involved in food production
• have some understanding of the principles underlying the growth and instability of international trade

Our courses are aimed at clinical researchers, nurses, general practitioners, and other health professionals who want to improve their skills in epidemiology, statistics and (clinical) research.

6 weeks, 12 hours per week (online)

To successfully complete this animal health course, you need to participate actively in the discussion forums and complete the learning unit assignments, including:

• One final essay

Even though you can manage your own time our courses are not intended as individual education. We offer personalized online learning with lots of interaction with peer students, the E-moderator and lecturers. Flexibility from students, a positive attitude towards teachers and peers and the willingness to learn together and help each other is invaluable to our courses. To experience maximum interaction, we advise you to log on several times per week.

Note that the starting dates of courses, interim deadlines, and dates of exams are fixed, but you can choose when and where you want to watch web lectures and work on assignments. The e-moderator of the course will inform you about the beginning of the course and about deadlines during the course.

The average required study workload for the courses of MSc Epidemiology Postgraduate Online is 14 hours per week. You will need this time to study, to keep up with the assignments and course material.

To enroll in this course, you need:

• A BSc or MSc, or a similar level of academic ability
• A basic understanding of veterinary epidemiology
• An interest in animal health economics
• Basic MS Excel skills
• Sufficient proficiency in English reading and writing

The course will be taught from the following textbook: Principles of Microeconomics by Libby Rittenberothy Tregarthen, which is online available. It is an excellent introductory textbook, including many examples, good summaries of key factors, so that students can practice their newly required skills. But it also contains sufficient depth to provide a good quantitative basis for further studying animal health economics.

Please note that this course is part of an existing program within the Graduate School of Life Sciences. Tuitition fees may alter during the year.