Lectures of Opportunity: "Improving Animal Health"

Improving Animal Health: Benefits to National Security

The link between animal health and national security is significant. Approximately 2.5 billion of the world’s poor rely on agriculture and livestock for food, income, and/or societal status. Economic development and food security generated by livestock support stability and resiliency in conflict regions. Moreover, at least 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases of humans are animal in origin and 80 percent of agents with potential bioterrorism use are zoonotic pathogens. Many of these agents are ubiquitous in austere environments where insurgencies persist, and control is absent; creating a reservoir of pathogens available for acquisition. Thus, improving animal health has the potential to:

1. Reduce the natural spread of infectious and zoonotic diseases
2. Reduce the opportunity that infectious diseases that could be acquired for nefarious purposes
3. Improve animal productivity to support livelihood development, stability, and resiliency

About this Lecture

Lectures of Opportunity offer NWC students, faculty, and staff an opportunity to learn more about national and international socio-political subjects that may be of relevance to the NWC community.