Healthy animals for healthy food

Animal-source foods (ASF) are highly nutritious. As such, they can contribute to
reductions in hunger, hidden hunger and malnourishment. Conversely, high levels of
ASF consumption is often linked to unsustainable production systems, disease
emergence, and questionable animal welfare. In addition to being a major source of
foodborne disease, they are also associated with rising antimicrobial resistance and
drug residues, with potentially huge impacts on public health. These are the common
notions associated with ‘healthy animals for healthy food’. However, the role of
livestock goes beyond nutritional benefits and health risks. For more than one billion
poor people worldwide, livestock are a key livelihood resource. They provide food
and income, act as a source of draught-power to produce crops, and facilitate access
to financial services – all in turn also contributing to healthy food.
There are many examples that illustrate how health constraints and low productivity
are related to the complexity of livestock systems in developing countries. Important
to consider are challenges related to access to input and output markets, and social
and cultural norms in influencing risks and benefits. The burden of disease across
species and regions is a consequence of a mix of viral, bacterial and parasitic
diseases—some of which zoonotic. Nevertheless, interventions largely target
diseases resulting in high mortality or morbidity rates, while zoonotic and other
diseases hindering productivity receive less attention. Tackling these constraints calls
for approaches which simultaneously address several diseases and embrace One
Health/Eco Health thinking which considers the links between animal and human
health, and their linkages to the ecosystem by which they are influenced and in turn
influence.
Thus a key message is that poor productivity does not just lower food production. In
fact, it undermines the wide range of livestock-related benefits (including resilience,
power and fertilizer), and exacerbates negative livestock externalities such as
increased greenhouse gas emission per kilo of livestock product, and fosters disease
emergence and over-reliance on veterinary drugs.
Climate change and rapidly changing livestock production systems are key drivers for
emerging diseases and changes in distribution and impact of currently endemic and
epidemic diseases, asking for predictive models and efficient early warning systems.
Moreover, novel business models for the delivery of animal health services and other
production inputs are needed to address social inequalities and improve linkages
between smallholders and output markets, ensuring that everyone can access
enough high quality ASFs in the future.