2023 International ISESSAH Conference -

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

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

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 13^th – 15^th 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 lateston the 7th of March 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)
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 13^th – 15^th 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 May 5^th, 2023.

Early-bird registration fee of 250 EUR is applicable until May 5^th, 350 EUR thereafter

Background

Location

The 2023 ISESSAH conference will be held 13^th – 15^th of June 2023 Viikki campus in Helsinki, Finland (address: Latokartanonkaari 9, 00790 Helsinki, Finland).

Conference theme and provisional programme

The 2023 ISESSAH conference will be held 13^th – 15^th of June 2023 Viikki campus in Helsinki, Finland (address: Latokartanonkaari 9, 00790 Helsinki, Finland). The main theme of the conference is “Understanding stakeholder behaviour and socio-economic implications of practices and policies of animal health”.

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 by ISESSAH in collaboration with the Nordic Association of Agricultural Science (NJF), Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and University of Helsinki.

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.

The registration opens at noon on June 13^th. The conference will be finished by 14 o’clock on June 15^th.

ISESSAH 2023 preliminary programme is available.

Scientific committee and local organising committee

Abstracts submitted to the conference for oral, flash talk and poster presentation were reviewed jointly by the scientific committee and local organising committee by the following persons:

Jarkko Niemi, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)
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)

Registration fees and registration

Early-bird registration fee of 250 EUR is applicable until May 5^th, 350 EUR thereafter. The fee includes participation to conference programme, welcome reception and conference dinner, and refreshments and lunches during the conference. Cancellations will be reimburced

Please register to the conference here: Open registration form

Accommodation

Conference participants are requested to book an accommodation by themselves. As the campus area does not have hotels, the local organising committee recommends booking a hotel that is located nearby the central railway station hotels or next to Hakaniemi square. These places have a direct bus connection to the campus. Please book your room early in order to avoid high prices.

Helsinki has a wide range of hotels. Below are some of the suggested accommodation options. Prices below refer to prices available at the website of each hotel. To obtain the best prices, participants are encouraged to check hotel search engines (such as hotels.com or booking.com).

Around central railway station:

Forenom Aparthotel Kamppi **(prices starting from 75 €/night)
Scandic Kaisaniemi *** (prices starting from 126 €/night)
Sokos Hotels *** & ****(different options, prices starting from about 190 €/night)
Hotel Arthur ***(prices starting from 140 €/night)
Radisson Blu Aleksanteri *** (prices starting from 173€/night)
Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel **** (prices starting from 138 €/night)
Scandic Grand central **** (prices starting from 180 €/night)

In Hakaniemi:

Scandic Hakaniemi *** (prices starting from 108 €/night)
Scandic Paasi *** (prices starting from 143 €/night)

Some other options:

Noli Studios in Malmi or Herttoniemi** (prices starting from 78 €/night)
CheapSleep Hostel
Unihome furnished apartments (different locations)

Getting to the venue

By plane: Book a ticket to Helsinki-Vantaa (HEL) airport. The airport has a direct commuter train connection to the city center of Helsinki (P or I train). When travelling from the airport to Viikki campus by public transportation, please take P train to Malmi and then bus number 79 towards Herttoniemi. Get off at stop called “Viikki”. The bus stop is located 270 meters from the venue. Taxi from the airport to Viikki costs around 50 euros.

By boat: Helsinki can be reached by boat from Tallinn, Estonia and Stockholm, Sweden. The harbours have a tram connection to the city center by by tram.

Buses: Viikki campus can be reached from the city center and Hakaniemi by several buses (75, 71, 77, 717, 721, 739). The journey time is about 15-25 minutes depending on the traffic.

When using public transportation buses, please note that the bus ticket must be purchased in advance by using a ticketing machine, Helsinki area public transportation mobile app or a ticket that can be purchased from a kiosk. Bus drivers do no longer sell tickets. The ticket prices vary by zone. Airport is located in in zone C, Viikki campus in zone B and the city center in zone A. Between Airport and campus, zones BC ticket is required and between city center and campus zones AB ticket is required (current price €3.10 per trip). The participants are recommended to purchase two or three days day ticket for zones A, B and C. The day ticket allows unlimited travel in these zones.

Contact

For questions, please contact: jarkko.niemi@luke.fi .

The conference is organised in collaboration between:

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

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

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