FROM THE EDITOR Coming to grips with HPAI

Capturing the magnitude of HPAI’s global impact is always tricky. However, notifications made to the World Animal Health Organisation (WOAH, formerly the OIE) in 2022 reinforce the idea that the disease was off the charts last year.

Markets, too, may provide a way of indirectly measuring HPAI’s impacts. Stratégie Grains estimates that European poultry production fell by 2% in 2022, and EU poultry meat exports measured by Eurostat collapsed by almost 10%. Of course, HPAI may not have been the only cause of either decline, but it is a significant one; it should be noted that not a single EU member state could export poultry to China as of March 2023 because of the HPAI situation, for example. In the US, the layer flocks have been hit especially hard by HPAI, and in consequence, the US benchmark shell egg quotation soared to a record high of $5.46 per dozen in December according to Urner Barry, a figure which is 76% higher than the previous record, set during the pandemic.

Beyond the impacts on bird numbers and the trade in poultry products, the recent experience with H5N1 HPAI is different in other important ways. For one thing, there was the troubling persistence of outbreaks even during the summer months of 2022, a fact noted on both sides of the Atlantic. And for another, it is wider in its geographical extent. In the Americas, H5N1 HPAI has reached further south than ever before, and continues to creep ever closer to Brazil, the world’s largest chicken meat exporter.

In short, it looks like more places will be dealing with fiercer HPAI for longer periods of time than ever before. How to adapt to this new reality? Many are calling for vaccines, a complicated subject that this magazine discusses in greater depth in its lead feature on HPAI. But it is also important to recognize that vaccination against HPAI will not be a silver bullet. It is not going to return us to the previous status quo, where avian influenza is only a periodic concern. Instead, in learning to live with the disease, we might need to rethink how and where we produce poultry. And we definitely need to work with international partners and across the value chain, in order to ensure that vital trade can continue and mitigation measures can be deployed.

Of course, the animal disease threat is much wider than just HPAI. This magazine features an interview with a researcher studying African Swine Fever virus’s survival and spread in a feed mill environment, as well as one with the CEO of a Vietnamese company rolling out one of the world’s first vaccines against the feared swine disease. We also discuss an initiative which is working to expand awareness of and access to existing animal health treatments in Africa, where a significant chunk of the future growth in meat demand will come from.

Feeding the world requires healthy animals. Keeping the herds and birds headed for our plates safe from disease requires research, innovation, international cooperation, and most of all, constant vigilance.

Spring 2023

Senior editor:

Shannon Behary

Design and Layout:

Julianne Abrams

Glenn Juszczak

Digital content production:

Alice Rotherham

Content contributors:

Simon Duke

Heather McGuire Doyle

Lydia Ma

Perspectives editor:

Morné Brandt

Perspectives manager:

Elisabeth Mork-Eidem

Magazine promotion:

Luke Bailey

House ad production:

Jeanne Ferrer

Luke Bailey

Jo Goodwin

Magazine production:

Melissa McChesney

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Cover photo © Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock

Feedinfo Review (ISSN 1777-5566) is a Mintec (formerly AgriBriefing) publication. Copyright ©2023. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the publisher. The contents of Feedinfo Review are subject to reproduction in information storage and retrieval systems.

Because it’s all about life.

The greatest global challenge is to ensure food security. Eight billion human lives depend on it. However, it matters how we source animal protein. Because it has consequences that affect animals, humans – and ultimately the entire planet. There is only one way to do it right: using science. Only well thought through, evidence-based solutions can establish a truly sustainable and secure food supply.

Sciencing the global food challenge. | evonik.com/animal-nutrition