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With continuing population growth and rising demand for food, livestock and aquaculture are integral to improving food and nutrition security, health, and livelihoods.1 These positive contributions are being undermined, however, by the negative effects of livestock production and consumption on society and the environment—eg, production of greenhouse gases, environmental degradation,2 emergence of zoonotic diseases,3 and antimicrobial resistance.4 Furthermore, excessive consumption of some livestock products is linked to risk of non-communicable diseases.5 There is little evidence available for addressing these concerns through improving livestock production and animal health systems, and no systematic approach to understanding global livestock populations and the resources invested in animals by societies globally. In 2018, the Global Burden of Animal Diseases (GBADs) programme was launched to address these vital issues.6 Since that time, we have made progress in developing a comprehensive framework for characterising livestock populations and assessing the value invested in livestock, as well as a system to capture net losses in production and societal expenditure on animal health issues (figure). There is an urgent need to develop intelligence systems able to improve decision making for people managing livestock to limit the environmental consequences and public health risks related to livestock production and consumption, while also helping people across the world access high-quality protein and micronutrients, produced in a humane way.

The economic impact of a pathogen or animal disease is a function of disease frequency, infection intensity, the effect of the disease on mortality and productivity in animals and its effects on human health, and efforts to respond to the disease.1 All of these factors can vary over time between species and the contexts in which people and animals live, and need to be measured to understand the patterns of impact at local, national, and global levels. Animal health has major impacts on human health directly through zoonotic disease transmission, or indirectly through nutritional availability and environmental management.2,3 For human health, the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study has created a comprehensive dataset of diseases, injuries, and risk factors that is used to measure epidemiological levels and trends worldwide.4 There is no equivalent dataset for animal diseases. The burden of individual animal diseases, such as foot and mouth disease,5 and of multiple diseases in geographical regions such the UK are estimated to be high.6,7 Estimates range from a 20% reduction in the global production of animal-source food8 to animal production losses of up to 50% in developing countries.9 However, there is no systematic way to capture and measure losses associated with animal diseases, and data on expenditure for disease mitigation are not analysed in a way that allows comparisons to be made.