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    Biosecurity

    U.S.-Backed Biosecurity Initiative Strengthens Disease Defenses in the Black Sea Region

    A five-year FAO-led effort builds critical animal health capacity across Eurasia—but U.S. support may falter under proposed Trump-Vance Administration cuts.
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    A veterinarian wearing protective clothing administers a vaccine injection to a cow inside a wooden barn, illustrating livestock vaccination and biosecurity practices.
    Photo credit: © wifesun / Adobe Stock

    A Regional Milestone in Ruminant Biosecurity

    In June 2025, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concluded a major five-year initiative to strengthen animal health systems and prevent transboundary and zoonotic diseases in ruminants across the Black Sea Basin. Spanning nine countries—Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Türkiye, and others—the effort modernized veterinary infrastructure, enhanced surveillance systems, and trained more than 900 animal health professionals in best practices for disease control and biosecurity.

    The project was enabled by critical funding and technical assistance from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) under Cooperative Threat Reduction project HDTRA1-19-1-0037. It aligned with the Global Framework for the Progressive Control of Transboundary Animal Diseases (GF-TADs), a joint initiative of FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), designed to mitigate animal disease threats that pose global health and economic risks.

    Targeting Six High-Impact Zoonotic and Transboundary Threats

    The initiative focused on six priority pathogens known for their economic disruption and spillover potential:

    These diseases threaten not only livestock productivity and food security but also human health, regional trade, and political stability. Project activities included integrated risk assessments, field-based biosecurity evaluations, and advanced spatial modeling to guide interventions.

    Outcomes were presented at a concluding regional workshop in Barcelona, hosted by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in coordination with the inaugural Conference on Animal Biosecurity, jointly convened by the World Animal Biosecurity Association (WABA) and the BETTER COST Action network.

    Predictive Modeling to Prevent Anthrax Outbreaks

    A major scientific achievement of the initiative was a new ecological niche modeling study on anthrax distribution, recently published in PLOS ONE. The study used livestock, soil, and climate data to map areas of high anthrax risk across central and eastern Türkiye, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, southern Ukraine, and parts of southern Russia and the Balkans.

    Key findings included:

    • Soil characteristics, temperature, and ruminant density were major predictors of anthrax viability.
    • Including livestock abundance as a biotic factor significantly improved model accuracy.

    These insights highlight the value of integrating host-pathogen ecology into forecasting systems and point to priority areas for targeted vaccination and community awareness campaigns—especially in rural, under-resourced regions where anthrax remains endemic.

    Biosecurity Gaps Expose Persistent ASF Threat in East Africa

    A related DTRA-supported study, published in Animals in March 2025, examined African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) genotype II in Tanzania’s Iringa and Ruvuma regions—home to nearly half the country’s domestic pig population. Researchers from FAO, IAEA, and Tanzanian veterinary laboratories found ASFV genotype II to be genetically uniform and firmly entrenched in these regions, more than a decade after its initial incursion. Alarmingly, 80% of farms sampled practiced untreated swill feeding and 90% lacked visitor restrictions—factors known to drive transmission. Co-infection with porcine circovirus-2 (PCV-2) was also identified in several cases, compounding the disease burden. The study underscored the urgent need for farmer education, strengthened diagnostic capacity, and standardized biosecurity protocols to disrupt the cycle of infection.

    These findings illustrate how gaps in veterinary capacity and public awareness continue to enable endemic zoonotic and transboundary threats—particularly in resource-limited settings—and reinforce the importance of sustained international investment in frontline biosecurity.

    Mapping Wild Boar Habitats to Prevent ASF Spillover in Southeast Asia

    In March 2025, a study published in Scientific Reports introduced a spatial modeling approach to predict wild boar distribution in Thailand—a key step in addressing African Swine Fever (ASF) transmission risks at the wildlife-livestock interface. Researchers applied a Random Forest algorithm using data from the SMART Patrol System to identify high-risk zones for ASF spillover in border provinces adjoining Myanmar and Lao PDR, as well as forest-adjacent areas across central and southern Thailand.

    The study found that deep forest cover, elevation, and proximity to water bodies were positively associated with wild boar presence, while human population density and agricultural land use had a negative correlation. These insights allow more precise targeting of ASF surveillance and prevention strategies, especially in areas with significant overlap between wild boar habitats and domestic pig farms.

    This work highlights the need for integrated wildlife and livestock disease surveillance systems in Southeast Asia and supports the development of transboundary risk mitigation tools. As wild boars increasingly serve as reservoirs for ASFV, especially in biodiversity-rich areas near human activity, models like this offer actionable intelligence for veterinary and public health authorities.

    One Health and National Security Implications

    While the project focused on veterinary systems, its broader impact lies in advancing One Health goals—preventing zoonotic transmission before it reaches human populations. Anthrax, ASF, and CCHF are occupational risks for farmers, herders, and meat-processing workers. Left uncontrolled, they can spill over into human populations, potentially igniting public health crises.

    Strengthening surveillance and biosecurity overseas serves U.S. and global interests by:

    • Detecting high-consequence pathogens before they cross borders
    • Protecting food systems and international trade
    • Reducing the burden on emergency response and humanitarian aid efforts

    Programs like DTRA’s Cooperative Threat Reduction initiative form a key pillar of forward defense in fragile, high-risk regions where state capacity may be limited.

    Progress at Risk Under U.S. Retrenchment

    Despite the measurable gains of this U.S.-backed initiative, the future of similar efforts face serious uncertainty. The Trump-Vance Administration’s proposed FY2026 budget includes sweeping cuts to global health security, including reductions to DTRA’s international programming.

    Experts warn that such cuts would erode decades of progress in disease detection and prevention. Historical precedent underscores the danger: following the Soviet Union’s collapse, underinvestment in veterinary systems led to reemergence of FMD and anthrax across the region. Today, climate shifts, increased livestock movement, and ongoing political instability create a volatile backdrop for future outbreaks.

    As the global community looks ahead to a second phase of biosecurity coordination in Eurasia, the U.S. must decide whether to remain a cornerstone of this critical infrastructure—or risk creating vacuums that adversarial powers or pandemics may fill.

    Sources and Further Reading

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