ISESSAH conference 2023:

Understanding stakeholder behaviour and socio-economic implications of practices and policies of animal health

Helsinki, Finland, 13th – 15th of June 2023

Call for abstractsProgrammeRegistration, accommodation & getting there

Photo: Tapio Haaja / Pixabay

Background

Social, economic and environmental sustainability of animal production is becoming an increasingly important issue for farmers and other supply chain actors. Outbreaks of exotic animal diseases and presence of production diseases and endemic diseases can severely reduce economic profitability and productivity of farming and cause disruptions in the market. Hence, disease prevention, risk management and control measures such as biosecurity and good farming practices, disease control programs, containment and eradication of disease outbreaks must be selected to control and/or mitigate animal disease and their negative consequences Various economic and other societal and social-psychological circumstances influence decisions that farmers, veterinarians, government authorities and other stakeholders make regarding animal health.

Therefore, when suggesting animal disease control programs or animal health promoting programs, economics and other social sciences should be taken into account. These can contribute to our understanding of what are the most preferred ways to control animal health. New insights and theoretical and methodological advances are needed to better understand the behaviour and choices made by farmers, veterinarians, policymakers, food operators, consumers and other relevant actors. The International Society for Economics and Social Sciences of Animal Health (ISESSAH) aims to improve animal health and welfare policies, programme and projects through more nuanced use of concepts and tools available in economics and social science disciplines. The annual conference is a key tool to promote this objective.

Conference theme and provisional programme

The 2023 ISESSAH conference will be held 13th – 15th of June 2023 in Helsinki region in Finland. The main theme of the conference is “Understanding stakeholder behaviour and socio-economic implications of practices and policies of animal health.

The conference programme will include keynote presentation from the leading scientists in economics and social sciences, invited talks of key stakeholder representatives in the livestock sector, and oral and poster presentations given by conference participants. The keynote speakers will be announced in January 2023. Social programme, including a welcome reception and a conference dinner, as well as on-demand pre- or post-conference activity will also be organised. The conference will be organised in collaboration with the Nordic Association of Agricultural Science (NJF).

Invited Speakers

Invited speakers of ISESSAH 2023 include

  • Jens Rommel, Associate Professor at Decision-making and Managerial Behavior research group, Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
  • Beth Clark, Lecturer in Food Marketing at School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
  • Arnaud Rault, Researcher focussing on animal health economics at Oniris, BIOEPAR (Biology, Epidemiology and Risk Analysis of Animal Health unit), National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), France
  • Taina Aaltonen, Deputy Director General at Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Finland, Chief Veterinary officer of Finland and delegate of Finland to the World Organisation for Animal Health
  • Ina Toppari, Executive manager at Animal Health ETT r.a., Finland.

Target group

The target group of the conference includes researchers, graduate students, other academics, government officials, advisors, veterinarians, industry representatives and all others interested in economics and social sciences applied to animal health.

Call for abstracts

The organising committee invites potential attendees of the ISESSAH conference to submit your abstracts for oral and poster presentations. Abstracts may focus on methods and techniques, development of theory, empirical applications, education or policy or to other relevant themes. Presentations on the following themes are particularly appreciated:

  • Economic burden of disease at animal, farm, sector, country
  • Costs, benefits or economic modelling of disease prevention and control programs or animal health and welfare policies and practices
  • Social and economic determinants of animal disease development, occurrence, transmission, and related decision-making
  • Human behaviour in relation to the effectiveness of disease prevention and control programs
  • Interactions between stakeholders (e.g. sociology; farmer-veterinarian interaction)
  • Understanding the market: Studies on consumer perspectives, market heterogeneity, international trade, standards, institutions or competition in the context of animal health and welfare.
  • Free communications on topics that are related to the domain of ISESSAH

Abstract guidelines

The submission should include a title of maximum 150 characters (including spaces), author information and an abstract. Author information should include the name(s) and affiliation(s) of author(s) and name and email address of the presenting author. The abstract should include in a concise format the research question and motivation of research, material and methods, the data used, indication of the main result(s), conclusion(s) and maximum five key words. The abstract should be limited to maximum 2000 characters (including spaces). Accepted abstracts will be made available in conference proceedings.

Authors should submit abstracts at the latest on the 28th of February 2023 by using the form that is available via the link below

Start abstract submission by clicking here.

Evaluation of abstracts

Abstracts will be reviewed and selected for oral, flash talk and poster presentations. The abstracts will be reviewed jointly by the scientific committee and local organising committee by the following persons:

• Jarkko Niemi, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), chairperson of organising committee
• Henk Hogeveen, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
• Erwin Wauters, Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Belgium
• Wilma Steeneveld, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
• Katja Schulz, Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Germany
• Jada Thompson, University of Arkansas, USA
• Timo Sipiläinen, University of Helsinki, Finland
• Minna Väre, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)
• Anna Stygar, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)

The main evaluation criteria are:

  • Scientific quality of research
  • Quality of writing
  • Relevance to the conference theme
  • The scientific committee will aim to achieve a balance in terms of geographical representation, gender and level of seniority of presenters.

Authors will be notified of the decision by March 10, 2023.  Further information regarding the conference and registration will soon become available at the ISESSAH website. If you would like to receive information and news about the conference. For questions, please contact: jarkko.niemi@luke.fi.

Conference location and registration

The 2023 ISESSAH conference will be held 13th – 15th of June 2023 in Helsinki region in Finland. Helsinki is the capital of Finland, the happiest country in the world. The region offers a unique combination of urbanity and peaceful nature that gives silence and space to feel, hear and experience more. The venue is located close to Helsinki-Vantaa international airport, which has direct flight connections to more than 130 destinations in the world.

Registration to the conference will be possible from March 1, 2023 onwards. Presenters will be requested to register by April 30, 2023.

Early-bird registration fee of 250 EUR is applicable until April 30th, 350 EUR thereafter.

The conference is organised in collaboration between: