Behind every animal disease outbreak lies a cost rarely counted in official statistics: animals killed even when healthy, farmers’ lifetime works destroyed, welfare protections that became secondary overnight, and farmers and veterinarians left to carry out killing they never wanted to do. That was the picture presented at a European Parliament event on 1 July, where scientists, veterinarians, policymakers and farmers examined the true cost of animal disease outbreaks in the EU, a week ahead of the European Commission’s EU Livestock Strategy, and on the day Ireland assumed the Presidency of the Council of the EU.
The event, co-organised by Animal Advocacy & Food Transition (AAFT) and the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE), heard that for diseases like HPAI, ASF, FMD, and more, mass culling is the default response rather than a genuine last resort. Since October 2020, more than 50 million birds have been culled across Europe due to HPAI alone. Speakers described animals having to be culled even when healthy or vaccinated, because international trade rules often won’t accept meat from vaccinated herds, a barrier speakers called political, not scientific. Farmers reported losing herds built over generations within days; veterinarians described being insulted and intimidated while carrying out culls, with some reporting depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress.
Rob Doyle, representing Ireland’s newly assumed Presidency, acknowledged the toll: “Disease outbreaks create negative consequences for animal welfare, stress for farmers and local communities, and increase workloads for veterinary teams.” Prevention, he said, would be central to Ireland’s term: “For the Irish presidency, this means keeping prevention and preparedness at the centre of the animal health agenda.”
Keynote speaker, Professor Jonathan Rushton, Professor of Economics of Animal Health at the University of Edinburgh: “Many of our reactions are focused in terms of trying to get rid of the host, not the pathogen. It pays to be informed.”
Dr Valerie Jonckheer-Sheehy, Senior Adviser at Caring Vets, said: “European law recognises that animals are sentient. That’s Article 13 of the TFEU. And yet, when disease strikes, our law makes killing the first response, and treats the alternatives as an exception rather than a path they must take. The killing of healthy animals should be a genuine last resort, written into our laws, not left to discretion.”
Olga Kikou, Director, Animal Advocacy & Food Transition: We cull, we move on, and then it happens again. Crisis, cull, crisis again. We keep spinning because we’re not addressing what drives it: overcrowded facilities, intensive stocking densities, vast numbers of animals in poor conditions. You don’t break out of it by culling faster. You break it by stepping out of it, fewer animals in better conditions.
Siegfried Moder, FVE President: The cost of prevention is predictable, the cost of an outbreak isn’t. We must shift investment from reaction to prevention. We invest in preventive veterinary visits, biosecurity and vaccination, including vaccinate to live strategies.
MEP Tilly Metz (Greens/EFA), co-host of the event: “We present depopulation as a technical necessity, yet we rarely speak honestly about what it really means for the animals that are involved.”
We live in unprecedented times, with an increasing amount of outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging animal diseases. With the evaluation report of the Animal Health Law Evaluation and the publication of the EU Livestock Strategy due next week, now is the moment for policy action. AAFT and FVE are calling on the European Commission and the Irish Presidency to shift investment away from disease control towards prevention, investment in thriving rural areas and to embed strategic vaccination and animal welfare into the structure of European farming.
The full recording of the event is available to watch HERE
