When news broke of recent hantavirus cases, the pattern was all too familiar: questions about whether borders should close, whether travellers should worry, and whether this could be the beginning of something worse. A similar response followed the declaration of a major Ebola outbreak in Africa.

As with 75 per cent of emerging infectious diseases in humans, these threats originate in animal pathogens. Shrinking habitats and a changing climate are pushing species into closer contact with humans. We have observed this for decades. The science is not disputed. And yet the world continues to underfund animal health systems that are often the first line of defence.

Global health spending on animal health systems – the workforce, surveillance networks and laboratories that help detect and contain outbreaks – amounts to just 0.6 per cent of total health spending. Meanwhile, animal diseases destroy more than 20 per cent of global animal production each year and are estimated to cost the global economy more than $300 billion annually, hitting hardest the farmers and communities least able to recover.

This is not a technical failure. It is a collective failure to invest adequately.

We know what it would cost to close the gap: $2.3 billion per year to help bring animal health systems in every country up to the standard the world needs. The annual investment needed is a drop in the ocean compared to the trillions in economic losses attributed to Covid-19 in 2020 alone.  

In an era of growing concern about deliberate biological threats, the surveillance systems that monitor animal health at the human-animal interface are also the systems that, when well resourced, can help detect unusual disease events early.

Since early 2025, high pathogenicity avian influenza has caused more than 2,000 outbreaks across 64 countries and territories, with more than 140 million poultry lost or culled. Foot-and-mouth disease has re-emerged in Europe and caused unprecedented outbreaks in Southern Africa. Lumpy skin disease has been reported for the first time in Italy, France and Spain.

Recent WOAH assessments show that 18 per cent of countries assessed reported declining veterinary capacity, while 22 per cent reported declining paraprofessional capacity – weakening the systems needed at the very interfaces where the next spillover event is most likely to begin.

This is where robust global animal health systems can make a decisive difference: during the critical window at the human-animal interface, before a pathogen establishes sustained transmission between people.

WOAH’s role in working with its Members happens earlier. It means rangers, veterinarians and field officers trained to detect unusual disease events in wildlife populations. It means laboratories that can identify unusual pathogens before they spread. It means systematic, cross-border surveillance and rapid information-sharing through WOAH’s animal health data systems including WildEpi, the wildlife-facing component for reporting and monitoring wild animal diseases, exceptional disease events and wildlife surveillance data.

We cannot guarantee that stronger animal health systems will prevent the next pandemic. But the probability of detecting a threat early, containing it before it reaches critical human transmission, increases significantly when those systems are well-resourced. We cannot simply keep hoping that the next spillover event will not be serious enough – and we cannot keep accepting the odds, outbreak after outbreak, as though rolling the dice were an acceptable strategy for global health security.

Last week, at the 93rd General Session of WOAH’s World Assembly of Delegates in Paris, ministers from 17 countries endorsed a landmark Ministerial Statement positioning stronger animal health systems as a frontline defence against pandemics, food insecurity and economic shocks.

Vaccination rates for most notifiable animal diseases remain well below 20 per cent. This is where mobilising political will and engaging the private sector are critical to closing the gap. The newly launched PREVENT Forum, a five-year public-private platform, will strengthen animal disease prevention, primarily through improved vaccination. By bringing together governments, industry and partners, the Forum will focus on improving access to quality vaccines and supporting their more strategic use in animal health systems globally.

The lesson of the past three decades – Sars, Mers, Ebola, Covid-19, avian influenza and hantavirus – is consistent: every one of these crises began at the interface between animals and people, and every one of them became harder and costlier to manage once human-to-human transmission was established.

We know the cost of prevention. We keep choosing to accept the same risks instead. The case for investing in animal health systems is an economic argument, a security argument and a humanitarian argument. It is what the world has not yet fully absorbed.

At WOAH, we have the network, the standards and the knowledge to support our 183 Members. What we need now is for decision-makers to treat animal health investment not as an isolated technical line item, but as what it truly is: a smart, cost-effective investment to protect human health, livelihoods, economies and global security.

Dr Emmanuelle Soubeyran is the Director General of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)

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