The health of human populations is both directly and indirectly linked to the health of livestock. For nearly 700 million people in developing countries, livestock represents their most important source of sustenance – both physical and financial. When the animals sicken, individuals, families and communities suffer. GALVmed currently focuses on 13 of the many illnesses that can have devastating effects on livestock populations:

• African swine fever (lethal viral infection of pigs)
• Contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia (infectious disease of cattle)
• Contagious caprine pleuro-pneumonia (lethal infection in goats)
• East Coast fever (tick-borne infection of cattle)
• Newcastle disease (affecting poultry)
• Porcine cysticercosis (zoonotic tapeworm in pigs)
• Rift Valley fever (mosquito-borne viral disease of small ruminants)
• Avian influenza (lethal bird flu)
• Classical swine fever (highly contagious viral disease in pigs)
• Haemorrhagic septicaemia (fatal disease of cattle and buffalo)
• Peste des petits ruminants (highly contagious fatal disease in goats and sheep)
• Sheep and goat pox (contagious viral skin disease)
• Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)

But the threat doesn’t end there: animal-borne illnesses also pose a significant threat to human lives in the developing world because some are zoonotic, which means they can be passed from animals to humans. For this reason, livestock diseases are of concern not only to the economic stability of a community, but also to the general health and well being of the people living there. Consider the following:

• At least three animal-borne diseases - Rift Valley fever, porcine cysticerosis and avian influenza - constitute significant zoonotic threats to humans.
• Rift Valley fever broke out in Kenya, Tanzania and Somalia in 2007, killing thousands of livestock. In addition, records show that 325 people became fatally ill; however, most experts believe this estimation to be much higher due to the number of unrecorded deaths.