The work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and transboundary animal diseases in a globalised world

Summary Many countries use the term ‘exotic animal disease’ or ‘foreign animal disease’ to designate those diseases that could have disastrous consequences if they were to enter their territory because of direct losses to the domestic population suffering from the disease or required counterepizootic measures, loss in trade, or possibly from a potential zoonotic spill-over. From the point of view of the United Nations the preferred term is transboundary animal diseases (TADs), as nothing is of itself exotic or foreign in the global theatre. TADs are defined by veterinary experts as those diseases that are of significant economic, trade and/or food security importance for a considerable number of countries,…