This book gives a theoretical and practical basis for assessing the livestock systems and animal disease control for farm, private enterprise and government policy through the provision of data collection and analysis methods and examples of their application in decision making. This book draws on an extensive review of the literature on animal health economics and experiences in livestock issues in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is the work of a number of authors who are well respected in their own fields of economics and have made significant contributions to livestock and animal health economics. The history of livestock and animal health economics is covered in chapter 1. The 3 major parts of this book discuss the following: theory and tools for the economics of animal health and production; review of the application of economics to animal diseases and health problems; and economic analysis and policy making and examples from around the world.