The "neglected" status given by the World Health Organization (WHO) to certain endemic tropical diseases, both human and zoonotic, affecting poor populations has resulted in the large-scale mobilisation of stakeholders and resources, thereby improving control of these diseases. Hence the proposal to also recognise as “neglected” certain animal diseases with serious socio-economic impacts on marginalised populations in the least developed countries. This process nevertheless requires prior identification of economic and social impacts, as well as of the criteria and threshold from which this recognition should be applied.