Economic analysis provides criteria for allocating limited funds to projects to achieve the greatest net benefits. For veterinary surveillance at national level, this should be in the interests of society as a whole. This study aimed at providing a user-friendly practical framework to guide decision-makers (DMs) in planning, designing, and conducting economic evaluation of governmental veterinary surveillance programmes. Two main pathways are presented: i) cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) for a scenario with constraints, for example when international disease regulations must be observed by law; and ii) cost benefit analysis (CBA) for a scenario without constraints. The CBA pathway further includes three sub-pathways according to the stage of mitigation and the related surveillance objective. For each pathway, the basic economic framework underpinning the analysis, economic criteria and data requirements are defined. A flow-chart is constructed to guide users step-by-step through a set of questions to ensure that all elements necessary to conduct the economic analysis are available. At the end of each pathway, instructions for carrying out the economic analysis are provided. Appendices include glossaries, explanations of key economic concepts, and information about efficiency criteria. The practical framework helps DMs to grasp the interrelationship of technical and economic considerations that impact on the economic value of surveillance, to list explicitly the necessary elements for the analysis, to estimate the time and personnel resources needed, and finally to choose a suitable approach for the economic evaluation of surveillance.
