How metabolic diseases Impact the use of antimicrobials: a formal demonstration in the field of veterinary medicine

Decreasing the use of antimicrobials has become a primary objective for both human and veterinary medicine in many countries. Medical prevention and good nutrition are seen as key parameters for reducing antimicrobial use. However, little consideration has been given to how metabolic diseases may influence the use of antimicrobials in humans and animals through limiting the prevalence and severity of infectious diseases. To quantify this relationship using the example of a common metabolic disease in dairy cows (subclinical ketosis, SCK), we constructed a stochastic model reporting the total quantity of curative antimicrobials for a given population with the prevalence of cows at risk for SCK. We considered the prevalence of SCK, the relative risk of the disease in cases of SCK compared to no SCK and the use of antimicrobials to treat SCK-induced infectious diseases. Reducing the percentage of cows at risk for SCK from 80% to 10% was associated with an average decrease in the use of antimicrobials of 11% (prevalence of SCK from 34% to 17%, respectively) or 25% (prevalence of SCK from 68% to 22%, respectively), depending on the relative risk to contract SCK if risk was present. For a large percentage of the cows at risk for SCK, using a preventive bolus of monensin reduced the use of curative antimicrobials to the same level that was observed when the percentage of cows at risk for SCK was low. The present work suggests similar approaches for obesity and diabetes

Localisation de l'agriculture biologique et accès aux marchés

L’objectif de cet article est de contribuer à l’analyse des implications sur la localisation du développement de l’Agriculture biologique (AB), souvent analysé en termes de « conventionnalisation ». La localisation de l’AB en France présente des contrastes à différentes échelles, régions, départements et localités, qui se reflètent dans des phénomènes de dépendances spatio-temporelles, variables selon la localisation. Nous mettons aussi en évidence un effet complexe du réseau urbain sur la localisation de l’AB, dépendant de la taille des villes, qui attirent les producteurs en AB, pour lesquels elles constituent un débouché direct, et en même temps les repoussent, du fait des limites de l’accès au foncier. Au total, une différenciation des dynamiques apparaît : une diffusion spatiale résultant d’une plus large diffusion des produits de l’AB dans les circuits de distribution alimentaire et de la demande qui en résulte de la part des acteurs de l’aval, une concentration liée à la proximité des consommateurs reposant sur des marchés de producteurs et des circuits courts

Советская историография 1920—1930-х гг. о региональных аспектах гражданской войны в России

La diffusion dans le temps et l'espace de la production en agriculture biologique renvoie à une concentration sur certains territoires, au rôle structurant des débouchés et aux incitations plus ou moins fortes issues des politiques publiques et des spécificités territoriales. Des enseignements sont tirés de plusieurs études récemment publiées par les auteurs. La localisation de l’agriculture biologique en France présente en effet des contrastes à différentes échelles et des phénomènes d’agglomération. Un double mouvement apparaît : une extension spatiale résultant d’une plus large diffusion des produits bio dans les circuits de distribution alimentaire et de la demande qui en résulte de la part des acteurs de l’aval, et une concentration liée à la proximité des consommateurs reposant sur des marchés de producteurs et des circuits courts. Par ailleurs, la complexité des dynamiques locales en jeu n'est pas toujours prise en compte et intégrée dans les dispositifs incitatifs. Des politiques plus ciblées sur les dynamiques locales d'innovations sont sans doute nécessaires.Organic farming diffusion, in time and space, has been characterised by concentration in some territories, the structuring function of outputs and incentives more or less connected with public policies and territorial specificities. Some knowledge is based on several studies recently published by the authors. Organic farming location in France shows contrasting patterns at different scales and aggregation phenomena. A double dynamics is identified: i) spatial expansion originating from a broader diffusion of organic products in food distribution and a growing demand from the downstream actors; ii) a concentration linked to vicinity of consumers and based upon local producers markets. Complexity of local dynamics is not always considered into the incentive programs. Policies focussing more explicitly on local innovations would likely be necessary

Evaluating the impact of rural development measures on farm labour use: a spatial approach

This article investigates the impact of various rural development measures on the evolution of farm labour in France between 2006 and 2011. Regionally-aggregated data were used, while potential spatial effects were taken into account. Results show that farm labour change was positively influenced by the participation to agroenvironmental schemes targeting the protection of water and biodiversity, but was not influenced by investment aids for farm modernisation, grassland premium, payments to organic farming conversion, or payments for the diversification of farm activities and rural tourism. Besides, delayed effects, related to the participation in the previous programming period (2000-2006), are observed

Crop Production and Crop Diversity in France: A Spatial Analysis

This paper aims to provide empirical evidence of the effect of crop diversity on crop production and spillover effect. Based on the estimation of production functions with spatial concerns on an original and rich dataset, results of the study suggest that crop diversity has a positive and significant effect on crop production. Its marginal contribution is substantial when rainfall is low in the agroecosystem. Furthermore, spatial dependence is a major issue and could be explained by topographic, climatic and agronomic constraints

Evaluating the impact of rural development measures on nature value indicators at different spatial levels: Application to France and The Netherlands

This paper proposes an approach for assessing the effectiveness of those agri-environmental schemes and rural development measures aimed at enhancing the natural value of farmland and, more generally, aimed at releasing the pressure on the environment due to agriculture. First, based on fine scale data, indicators derived from the High Nature Value farmland concept are tested at different scales, resolutions and situations: LAU2 for The Netherlands and LAU1 for France. The effect of rural development measures on the evolution of these indicators is then explored. Significant cause-effect relationships are found in the French cases, while only relationships of correlations are observed from the Dutch case study, obviously caused by a lack of data. Using fine scale data on rural development measures related to both 2000–2006 and 2007–2013 programming periods of the Common Agricultural Policy, a spatial econometrics methodology is applied to France, at national level on the one hand, and at a selected NUTS2 level on the other. The results indicate that agri-environmental schemes and specific rural development measures affect the changes in the indicators, and that the spatial scale of the analyses matters. In particular, results indicate that trends observed at the national scale do not necessarily apply at the regional scale (e.g. impacts of conversion to organic farming, the grassland premium, payments for water and biodiversity protection) underlining the importance of multi-scale assessments. Interestingly, delayed effects of the measures implemented in the 2000–2006 programming period, such as machinery investment aids and less-favoured area payments, are detectable. As regards the 2007–2013 rural development measures, the most significant positive effects on the farm nature value indicator are found, at the national level, for locally targeted agri-environmental schemes focused on biodiversity and water issues and, at the NUTS2 level, for supporting organic farming schemes. Given that the farm nature value indicator is built from three different indices (addressing crop diversity, grassland share, and wooded and afforested farmland) the effect of rural development measures on each of these individual indices is also explored. This enables the main structure and the magnitude of policy impacts to be captured and helps with the understanding of why certain objectives were not met. Key findings are relevant in the context of policy monitoring and evaluation, while the methodology proposed, that incorporates spatial effects, is an important contribution to the implementation of the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework by Member States to account for national, regional or local characteristics

How To Make A Pie: Reproducible Research for Empirical Economics & Econometrics

Empirical economics and econometrics (EEE) research now relies primarily on the application of code to datasets. Handling the workflow linking datasets, programs, results and finally manuscript(s) is essential if one wish to reproduce results, which is now increasingly required by journals and institutions. We underline here the importance of “reproducible research” in EEE and suggest three simple principles to follow. We illustrate these principles with good habits and tools, with particular focus on their implementation in most popular software and languages in applied economics