The collective management of infectious animal diseases is primarily the responsibility of various specialists in biological processes, using sciences such as epidemiology, virology or immunology. However, experience and recent epidemics show the central role of human actions in the spread and control of infectious dynamics. The social sciences thus provide a complementary perspective, and among them, economics has shown its importance in understanding the human factors that explain herd health. Through a selection of recent articles in this research field, this article proposes to explain some salient points of economic research that enrich the understanding of infectious dynamics in livestock and serve as support for public health management decisions.