A perfect storm may be gathering over the global food system.
As unprecedented outbreaks of bird flu, African swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease, and New World screwworm spread across regions, the financial systems meant to prevent and contain these threats are shrinking.
That is the central warning from the World Organisation for Animal Health’s (WOAH) newly released 2026 State of the World’s Animal Health report, which argues that global investment in prevention is failing to keep pace with a rapidly expanding biological risk profile.
According to the report, more than 20% of global animal production is lost to preventable disease every year, yet animal health receives less than 0.6% of total global health spending. At the same time, approximately 75% of emerging infectious diseases in humans originate in animals.
For food-animal veterinarians in North America, many of the report’s themes already feel familiar. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in dairy cattle, growing antimicrobial stewardship pressure, increasing biosecurity demands, workforce shortages and concern around emerging and transboundary diseases all feature prominently in WOAH’s assessment of global animal health trends.
“Animal health systems are the first lines of defense against the next pandemic,” said WOAH director general Emmanuelle Soubeyran during a panel discussion accompanying the report release.
Global Animal Health Funding Declines as Disease Risks Increase
One of the report’s strongest warnings centers on what WOAH describes as a rapidly contracting financing landscape. Despite the growing importance of animal health systems, they remain chronically underfunded globally.
Official Development Assistance, government-funded international aid intended to support the economic development and welfare of lower- and middle-income countries, fell to $174.3 billion in 2025 — a 23% decline that WOAH says represents the largest annual contraction on record and effectively erases a decade of growth in global development aid.
Meanwhile, less than $1 billion annually reaches veterinary services and zoonotic disease prevention worldwide. According to WOAH, that amounts to less than 2.5% of an already shrinking global health aid budget.
WOAH estimates bringing veterinary services worldwide up to international standards would cost approximately $2.3 billion annually — a figure the organization contrasts against the trillions of dollars in economic losses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The choice before governments, funders, partners and private sectors is not between spending and saving,” Soubeyran says. “It is between planned investment in animal health systems and protecting our health and minimizing losses.”
Veterinary services are prevention infrastructure, not simply regulatory oversight. That framing has increasing relevance for North American food-animal veterinarians, whose responsibilities now often extend well beyond traditional clinical work to include biosecurity planning, disease surveillance, movement documentation, antimicrobial stewardship, emergency preparedness and producer communication.
HPAI, African Swine Fever and Emerging Diseases Continue Expanding
The report paints a picture of disease systems becoming increasingly interconnected as climate change, globalization, wildlife movement and changing production systems alter how diseases emerge and spread.
The human and economic cost of this underinvestment is already visible:
- Avian Influenza: Between 2025 and early 2026, over 2,100 outbreaks were recorded in 64 countries, resulting in the loss of 140 million poultry.
- The Cattle Shift: HPAI is now recognized as an emerging disease in bovines, requiring international reporting as it jumps species barriers.
- Parasitic Spread: New World screwworm is moving northward through Central America with tens of thousands of cases, while Lumpy Skin Disease has reached Western Europe for the first time.
- Regional Crises: Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) has recently caused unprecedented outbreaks in Southern Africa.
Outbreaks no longer remain localized events. In an increasingly interconnected livestock and trade system, delayed detection in one region can rapidly create wider food system, trade and public health consequences.
Veterinary Preparedness and Biosecurity Deliver Economic Returns
A major theme running throughout the report is that governments and industries continue spending far more responding to disease crises than preventing them.
One highlighted example compares the United Kingdom’s response to FMD outbreaks:
- In 2001, an underprepared response cost the UK an estimated £8 billion and resulted in the culling of more than 6 million animals.
- In 2007, after improved preparedness investments, another outbreak was contained in just 58 days at a cost of approximately £47 million.
These examples demonstrate the measurable economic return of surveillance systems, preparedness planning, laboratory capacity, vaccination programs and coordinated veterinary services.
“Preparedness begins before the crisis,” says Paolo Tizzani, veterinarian and epidemiologist with WOAH.
WOAH Warns Veterinary Staffing Shortages Could Delay Outbreak Detection
The report also identifies veterinary workforce capacity as a growing vulnerability globally.
According to WOAH data:
- 18% of countries assessed showed declining veterinary capacity,
- 22% showed declining paraprofessional capacity.
During the panel discussion, WOAH officials specifically referenced declining rural veterinary presence as an emerging concern.
“When animal health systems are under-resourced, diseases can be detected late,” Tizzani says. “They have the possibility to spread more widely.”
Workforce shortages are no longer simply a labor issue, but increasingly a biosecurity and preparedness concern. Without sufficient veterinary staffing, laboratory support, surveillance infrastructure and field-level reporting capacity, outbreaks become harder to identify and contain early.
Prevention and Vaccination are Key
WOAH warns AMR could contribute to more than 39 million human deaths globally by 2050 while also creating major economic losses in animal production systems. The organization strongly positions prevention-oriented herd-health approaches — including vaccination, surveillance, biosecurity and improved disease management — as critical tools for reducing antimicrobial use.
This discussion aligns closely with ongoing stewardship initiatives across dairy, beef and pork sectors, including increased focus on veterinary oversight, preventive medicine and judicious antimicrobial use.
Only a small proportion of AMR-related research funding currently goes toward animal vaccines, despite their role in reducing antimicrobial demand. Still, the report points to examples where prevention-focused systems have dramatically reduced antibiotic use. Norway, for example, was able to reduce antibiotic use in its salmon industry by 99% through sustained investment in vaccination and preventive health programs.
Animal Health as Critical Infrastructure
WOAH consistently frames animal health systems as critical infrastructure tied directly to economic resilience, food security, public health and trade stability. They also push back against oversimplified narratives that place disease emergence solely on livestock production itself. Instead, WOAH officials emphasize the growing complexity of interactions between wildlife, livestock, humans, ecosystems, climate pressures and global trade systems.
“One Health will remain an aspiration until animal health systems are genuinely built into how we plan and invest,” Soubeyran says.
Animal health systems can no longer be treated as background infrastructure that only becomes visible during emergencies. For food-animal veterinarians in North America, that transition is already well underway.
Whether through HPAI surveillance in dairy cattle, African swine fever preparedness planning, antimicrobial stewardship, movement documentation or producer biosecurity support, food-animal veterinarians are increasingly functioning as frontline public-health and food-system infrastructure.
“Animal health must be financed as a global public good,” the report concludes. “The benefits generated cross every border, and the risks of underinvestment are shared by all.”
