VacciCost Tool
VacciCost Tool
Vaccination is one of the main control strategies against animal infectious diseases, and it has become the main tool for health authorities willing to eradicate a disease. However, implementing a massive animal vaccination campaign requires a lot of resources, both human and capital. Providing governments with a tool to help them estimate accurately the resource requirements for the effective implementation of vaccination campaigns can be useful for several reasons:
- It would allow an ex-ante assessment of the viability and cost-effectiveness of a massive vaccination campaign;
- It provides means to prepare budgets, involving not only governmental resources but also complementary financial support by international organizations;
- It can be used for the evaluation of different strategies, depending on the availability of resources and the duration of the vaccination program.
Within the frame of the Epigenesis project and considering the stakes related to transboundary animal diseases control and, more specifically projects of disease eradication both in Africa (Peste des Petits Ruminants) and the Caribbean (Classical Swine Fever), it was decided to develop a tool (VacciCOST) intending to help veterinary authorities to estimate the necessary resources for the planning of animal vaccination campaigns, whatever the objective: disease eradication or control.
The cost structure used in VacciCost follows the methodology proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) for national comprehensive multi-year strategic plans (cMYP) for Immunization of children and have been adapted to address immunization of animal populations. It includes the following components: cost of vaccines, injection supply, personnel, transport, maintenance and overhead, training, social mobilization, and surveillance and monitoring. To estimate the delivery costs of vaccination depending on easiness of farms access and on the degree of animals dispersal in the farmthe tool takes into account the degree of accessibility to the livestock population (using World Bank’s Rural Access Index), and the predominant type of livestock production system in the country (for example, commercial versus backyard farms).
VacciCost has been designed essentially for vaccination of livestock populations and is being calibrated in the Caribbean (swine diseases) and African context (small ruminants’ disease). Its flexible design makes the tool generic and can potentially be used in a broad range of situations over different countries and disease models.
A manuscript* has been submitted for publication in a scientific journal. It is being evaluated by peer reviewers. The tool will be made available on the CaribVET and Epigenesis websites after publication. More information: please send an E-mail to the authors of the work.
Tago P., Sall B., Lancelot R., Pradel J. VacciCost - A tool to estimate the resource requirements for implementing livestock vaccination campaigns. Application to peste des petits ruminants (PPR) vaccination in Senegal. Preventive Veterinary Medicine. Submitted.
