From barnyard to boarding pass: Exploring livestock's world tour

Background

Growing global demand for meat and milk has fuelled an increase in the trade in animal products, but there is still little awareness of the magnitude and characteristics of the trade in live animals. In this study, we investigated the international trade of 12 live food-producing animal species, including poultry (‘chickens’, ‘ducks’, ‘geese’ and ‘turkeys’), ruminants (‘cattle’, ‘sheep’, ‘goats’, ‘camels’ and ‘buffalo’), pigs and ‘other’ food-producing animals (‘rabbits and hares’ and ‘horses’) as reported to the FAOStat database between 2005 and 2021.

Results

The analysis revealed that international trade in most species had increased over the study period. Chickens were numerically the most traded species with an average of 1.4 billion live chickens internationally traded annually. Live export of chickens demonstrated the greatest growth over the study period, with an estimated additional 58 million animals traded each year. Intercontinental trade was also substantial, contributing to 10% or more of the international trade in eight of the 12 species. Many countries were also bidirectional traders for multiple species. The Netherlands, Germany and Poland were among both the highest importers and highest exporters for multiple species between 2019 and 2021.

Conclusion

This study provides valuable insight on the scale and trends in the international trade in livestock to inform regulations and practices that might be needed to mitigate potential threats associated with livestock movements, including disease emergence and spread, poor animal welfare, antimicrobial resistance and environmental degradation, while supporting demands and need for livestock-based foods.