Protecting animal health, protecting food security

That statistic alone exposes a serious imbalance in global priorities.

According to WOAH, more than 2000 outbreaks of avian influenza were reported across 64 countries and territories between 2025 and 2026, leading to the loss or culling of over 140 million poultry birds. African swine fever continues to spread across regions, while foot-and-mouth disease has resurfaced in several countries.

These are no longer isolated veterinary events. They are economic disruptions capable of affecting food supply, trade, inflation and rural livelihoods.

Modern food systems depend heavily on healthy livestock populations. Poultry, dairy, cattle and swine sectors support millions of farmers and provide affordable protein to billions of people. When disease enters these systems, the consequences move far beyond farms.

The poultry industry has already experienced this repeatedly through major avian influenza outbreaks that disrupted markets, increased production costs and forced mass culling operations across multiple regions.

But poultry is only one part of a much larger challenge.

African swine fever has reshaped pork markets in several countries. Dairy and cattle sectors continue to face recurring outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and other infections that restrict animal movement and affect trade.

At the same time, climate change is making disease patterns harder to predict. Rising temperatures, environmental stress and changing migratory patterns are altering the behaviour of pathogens and disease vectors in ways researchers are still trying to fully understand.

The livestock industry is entering a period where biological risk is becoming a constant operational challenge rather than an occasional disruption.

Yet despite these realities, animal health still receives remarkably little strategic attention compared to other sectors linked to national protection and economic security.

Governments spend enormous resources strengthening defence systems and preparing for external threats. But food systems rely on another form of protection that often remains overlooked — strong animal health infrastructure.

A major disease outbreak may not resemble a traditional security threat, but its economic impact can be equally severe. It can disrupt food supply, damage trade and create inflationary pressure within a short period of time.

The 0.6 percent figure highlighted by WOAH therefore becomes more than just a statistic. It represents a warning about how the world continues to underestimate the importance of animal health in protecting food security.

For decades, livestock development focused heavily on productivity. Better genetics, improved feed conversion and larger-scale production became the main indicators of progress. But recent outbreaks have exposed the weakness of systems built primarily for efficiency without equal investment in resilience.

Highly productive livestock systems can also become highly fragile during disease crises.

Modern livestock production now operates through interconnected supply chains involving feed manufacturers, hatcheries, processors, transporters, retailers and export markets. A disease outbreak affecting one part of the chain can quickly create consequences across multiple sectors and countries.

This makes prevention more important than ever before.

The problem is that prevention remains largely invisible when it works. Strong veterinary surveillance systems, laboratory networks and farm biosecurity rarely attract public attention because successful prevention prevents crises from happening in the first place.

Unfortunately, that invisibility has also contributed to underinvestment.

Asia reflects this challenge very clearly. The region is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing livestock and poultry industries, driven by rising incomes, urbanisation and growing demand for animal protein.

However, dense livestock populations and highly integrated production systems also increase disease vulnerability.

Many countries still operate with a mix of large commercial farms and smaller independent producers with uneven access to veterinary services and infrastructure. Informal trade systems and cross-border animal movement add further complexity to disease monitoring and control.

Under these conditions, animal health becomes directly linked to food security and economic stability.

This is also why the “One Health” approach is receiving increasing global attention. The concept recognises the close relationship between animal health, human health and environmental health.

The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced how costly delayed preparedness can become. While livestock diseases differ from human pandemics, the broader lesson remains highly relevant: biological threats are easier and cheaper to manage before they escalate into major crises.

That understanding is gradually reshaping priorities within the livestock sector. Companies are investing more heavily in traceability systems, digital monitoring tools and improved disease surveillance. Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics are also beginning to support early-warning systems.

But technology alone cannot solve deeper structural weaknesses.

Many countries still face shortages in veterinary manpower, laboratory capacity and coordinated surveillance systems. Smaller producers often struggle with the cost of implementing advanced biosecurity measures.

Animal health also suffers from another challenge: most consumers rarely think about it until food prices rise or shortages begin affecting daily life. Yet behind every stable livestock system is a vast amount of preventive work carried out quietly by veterinarians, researchers, laboratory professionals and farmers themselves.

They form an invisible defence system protecting global food production every day.

WOAH’s warning should therefore not be viewed as alarmist. It should be viewed as realistic.

The future of livestock production will depend not only on producing more meat, milk or eggs, but also on how effectively countries strengthen their ability to prevent, detect and manage biological threats before they become economic disasters.

Those that invest early in stronger animal health systems will likely be better positioned to protect both food security and economic stability in the years ahead.