Global Burden of Animal Diseases (Scientific and Technical Review, Vol. 43, 2024)

When animal diseases occur on a wide scale, their burden can influence the shape and destiny of societies. With such dramatic impacts on how societies evolve, what is known about the quantification of the burden of animal diseases overall? Understanding and gauging this burden is a crucial component to ensuring healthy animals – but also healthy people and a healthy environment. This issue of WOAH’s Scientific and Technical Review focuses on the international work of the Global Burden of Animal Diseases (GBADs) programme and what it has achieved thus far in measuring animal health across livestock and aquaculture to improve societal outcomes. The articles range from economic assessments of animal diseases, from a farm to a national perspective, to associated work in human and crop burden estimations, case studies in Indonesia, Ethiopia and Senegal, methods and data flows, and how the generated data can be applied. These studies show how information on the animal populations at risk is critical for decision-makers to target their initiatives and investments for the most significant impact on human well-being. This issue of the Review highlights the future of GBADs and the influence of its ongoing work to strengthen global estimations, to present data and information in accessible forms and to place the burden of animal disease in a One Health framework.