India needs a strategic and proactive approach to combat trans-boundary diseases

Prof B.N.Tripathi

bntripathi1@yahoo.co.in

The livestock sector constitutes a critical, high-growth pillar of the Indian economy (12.77% CAGR, 2014-2024), acting as a financial safety net for over 80 million rural households. The livestock sector contributes about 5.5% to India's total Gross Value Added (GVA) and nearly 30% to the Agricultural GVA 2023-24. It is one of the fastest-growing segments in agriculture, maintaining a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of around 8-10% in recent years, consistently outperforming the crop sector. As of the 20th Livestock Census, India possesses the world's largest livestock population, totaling approximately 536.76 million animals showing an increase of 4.8% over livestock census, 2012. India is the world's largest milk producer (247.87 million tons), accounting for 24% of global output. The dairy sub-sector alone is the single largest agricultural commodity in the country.

Animals provide food and other critical resources to a large global population. Transboundary animal diseases (TADs) are highly contagious or transmissible epidemic diseases with the potential to spread rapidly across national borders. These diseases can have severe socioeconomic consequences, threaten food security, and adversely affect public health. Globally, there are 17 recognized TADs, of which 13 are already present in India.

Over the last two and a half decades, India has witnessed the introduction or emergence of approximately 25 significant infectious diseases, pathogens, or outbreak events, including COVID-19, Nipah, Zika, H1N1 influenza, CCHF, avian influenza, Lumpy Skin Disease, and African Swine Fever. Many of these are zoonotic and linked to globalization, climate change, ecological disruption, and increased human-animal interaction. In addition, several important TADs remain prevalent in the African continent, including Rift Valley Fever (RVF), Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP), Trypanosomiasis (Nagana), and zoonotic diseases such as Ebola and Marburg virus infections in wildlife. Most TADs appear to spread towards India through similar epidemiological pathways, often moving from Africa through the Middle East and Eastern Europe before eventually reaching the Indian subcontinent.

India suffers huge economic losses annually (1-1.5 lakh crores) including those of FMD (`Rs 20,000 crores), LSD (Rs 20,254/- 2022-23), African swine fever (Rs. 2800-14000 crores), etc. The Indian and the State Govts direct huge budget for National Disease Control Programs for a number of diseases (eg FMD, Avian flu, PPR, CSF, Brucellosis, etc). These diseases also trigger massive export losses, since livestock, poultry, and related products can only be sold to a handful of countries due to trade bans.

Despite being aware of the potential threat posed by these exotic diseases, and despite India possessing adequate high security containment laboratories along with competent scientific and technical manpower, and huge veterinary infrastructure, the country has not been able to prevent the entry and spread of most of diseases including recently introduced diseases such as ASF and LSD throughout the country.

American and European countries have long pursued collaborative programmes for the prevention and control of transboundary animal diseases (TADs) in Asia and Africa. These partnerships not only help safeguard livestock economies in partner nations but also enable developed countries to gain first-hand exposure to emerging and exotic pathogens, facilitating the development of advanced diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics.

India should adopt a similar strategic approach by encouraging veterinary and medical scientists to engage in disease-control initiatives across Asia and Africa. Such collaboration would strengthen global animal health while providing Indian scientists valuable field experience with exotic diseases and enabling them to study these agents in their own high-containment laboratories and develop countermeasures.

Additionally, India should consider establishing regulated mechanisms for the import and study of exotic animal and human pathogens under stringent biosafety and biosecurity conditions. Such an approach would enable the proactive development of advanced diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics before exotic diseases enter the country. Although concerns regarding the accidental release of exotic pathogens from laboratories persist, such apprehensions may inadvertently reflect a lack of confidence in our own scientific capabilities. Importantly, India has no recorded history of pathogenic virus leakage from its laboratories. Like the US and Europe, India possesses robust high-containment facilities capable of safely handling exotic pathogens and developing the necessary immune-biologicals, including diagnostics and vaccines, for effective disease preparedness and control.

India's experience with African swine fever and lumpy skin disease has been poor. Relying only on diagnostic tests and active surveillance after a disease enters the country has failed to control spread. Developing vaccines post-entry is like building weapons after borders are breached-it is not a strong strategy. Once established, diseases become far costlier to contain and eradicate, while increasing the overall disease burden.

The recent spread of FMD serotype SAT-1 into West Asia, parts of Europe, and most recently China is epidemiologically significant and has prompted global alerts from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). It is highly likely that SAT-1 will soon reach India's borders. Once this serotype is detected in neighbouring countries, our approach should be to either import an efficacious vaccine-since vaccines for other serotypes are ineffective-or import the virus and promptly develop a vaccine in our containment facilities. We do have a dedicated ICAR institute on FMD (ICAR-National Institute for FMD Research) and commensurate containment facilities are available to handle SAT1 or any other FMD virus serotype. Our current policy of relying on effective surveillance through diagnostic testing alone has failed to contain several recent outbreaks, including African Swine Fever and Lumpy Skin Disease. A vast country like India cannot afford to allow any more trans-boundary animal and zoonotic diseases to become endemic. Year after year, disease burden in India is increasing, which puts significant pressure on our exchequer.

Effective control of exotic and transboundary diseases depends fundamentally on proactive preparedness, particularly through the development of highly sensitive diagnostics, robust vaccines, and effective therapeutics before the pathogen enters the country. Achieving this objective requires a comprehensive "One Health" approach that integrates researchers, policymakers, veterinarians, medical professionals, environmental scientists, and other key stakeholders across the animal, human, and environmental health sectors.

Conventionally, vaccine development requires 8-10 years before deployment for disease control, by which time the disease would often have spread throughout the country. The COVID-19 pandemic clearly demonstrated that, during a global emergency, vaccines can be developed, tested, and deployed within a remarkably short period of time, showcasing the transformative potential of modern science, technology, and regulatory coordination during crisis situations.

Today, it is scientifically and technologically feasible to develop vaccines for emergency use within 1-2 years in order to protect both animal and human populations from rapidly emerging diseases. During the COVID-19 period, India demonstrated its scientific capability through the development of human and animal COVID-19 vaccines as well as a vaccine against Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD. However, despite the urgent need, the country was unable to approve the emergency use of the LSD vaccine during the major outbreaks beginning in 2022. This delay contributed to substantial economic losses to the dairy sector and allowed the disease to spread extensively across livestock populations. These experiences highlight the need for informed, timely, and science-based decision-making in matters related to emerging and transboundary diseases. Regulatory and policy decisions during public health and animal health emergencies must be guided by available scientific evidence, risk assessment, and national preparedness priorities in order to minimize economic losses and safeguard both livestock and human health.

There is an urgent need for India to recalibrate its policy and strategy for preventing and controlling trans-boundary and zoonotic diseases. Policymakers must have greater confidence in veterinary and medical scientists, while the scientific community must trust its own expertise and move away from conventional approaches to adopt a distinct strategy for tackling exotic diseases.

(The author is Vice Chancellor Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Jammu and Formerly Deputy Director General (Animal Sciences) ICAR, New Delhi)