Animal disease outbreaks threaten protein supply chains as global investment gap widens, industry warns

Global protein supply chains face mounting pressure from animal disease outbreaks as industry representatives warned that inadequate investment in animal health systems is leaving livestock sectors exposed to rising biosecurity risks.

Speaking at the European Feed Association conference May 19-21, representatives from Spain, Germany and the Netherlands flagged African swine fever and avian influenza as the most immediate threats to European protein markets.

"Currently, ASF has not affected domestic pork farms in Spain, the EU's major pork producer," a representative for the Spanish association of pork and animal feed producers, ANPROGRAPOR, told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, on the sidelines of the conference. "However, if the disease spreads to domestic farms, it could significantly impact pork production."

The warnings come as the World Organisation for Animal Health, in its latest State of the World's Animal Health report released May 13, said animal diseases destroy more than 20% of global production each year, yet animal health receives as little as 0.6% of global health spending.

Funding gap widens

Development assistance for health declined to about $39.1 billion in 2025, with animal health accounting for less than 2.5% of that total, the report said.

Bringing veterinary services in every country up to international standards would cost about $2.3 billion per year -- less than 0.05% of the $3.6 trillion in economic losses attributed to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, a disease that most likely originated in animals, the report said.

"Animal health systems sit at the very center of food security, economic stability, welfare and human health, and yet are chronically underfunded," WOAH Director General Emmanuelle Soubeyran said in a statement in the report.

More than 2,000 outbreaks of high-pathogenicity avian influenza were reported by 64 countries and territories between 2025 and 2026, resulting in the culling or loss of more than 140 million poultry. African swine fever continues to spread through notable long-distance jumps, while foot-and-mouth disease has caused unprecedented outbreaks in Southern Africa and re-emerged in Europe.

Trade disruption and industry response

The trade consequences of inadequate disease management are already visible. ASF has disrupted pork supply chains across Europe and Asia, forcing exporters to renegotiate market access and implement costly containment measures.

"In a world where animal disease risks are becoming more frequent, reliability is not the absence of incidents. Reliability is the capacity to detect, contain, communicate and maintain trust," Alberto Herranz, director general of Spain's pork interprofessional INTERPORC, told Platts in a telephone interview May 21.

Seventy-five percent of emerging infectious diseases in humans originate in animals, making animal health systems the world's first line of defense against outbreaks, including a potential next pandemic, WOAH said.

However, 18% of countries recently assessed by WOAH showed declining veterinary capacity, and 22% showed declining paraprofessional capacity, the WOAH report said. Based on 54 countries assessed by WOAH, an average 52% budget increase would be required to meet the actual annual cost of effective veterinary services, it said.

"Disease does not recognise borders. A gap in animal health surveillance in one country is a vulnerability for every country," WOAH World Assembly of Delegates President Susana Pombo said in the report.

Source: WOAH State of the World's Animal Health report 2026