Infectious disease risk: why preparedness matters

Infectious diseases remain a major challenge to cattle health, productivity and farm profitability. However, the disease landscape facing livestock producers is changing in response to climate change, environmental pressures and evolving interactions between livestock, wildlife and humans. Warmer temperatures, changing rainfall patterns and altered grazing conditions have the potential to influence the transmission dynamics of vector-borne diseases, parasitic infections and bacterial pathogens. This article explores how environmental change may affect infectious disease risks in cattle, with particular emphasis on tick-borne diseases, gastrointestinal parasites, liver fluke and Q fever. Q fever provides an important example of how environmental conditions can influence the transmission of zoonotic bacterial infections and highlights the close links between animal, human and environmental health. The article also discusses the continuing importance of endemic disease control, biosecurity and surveillance in building resilient cattle production systems capable of adapting to future disease challenges.