The emergence of novel pathogens is arguably the greatest global biosecurity threat to both humans and animals. The Covid-19 pandemic showed that new diseases can kill and sicken millions of people. They can also be economically disruptive and cause dangerous social fragmentation. New forms of existing diseases can also make current treatments ineffective. These biosecurity threats are driven mostly by animal agriculture. It is important to educate the public about the dangers of raising and slaughtering animals for human consumption. Policy makers should take into account disease risk when making decisions about our food systems. However, we should not allow biosecurity to be used as a convenient political justification to push for harmful ‘ag-gag’ laws.

Key Objectives

1. Inform the public about inherent biosecurity risks associated with animal agriculture.
2. Decrease the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture and require reporting on their use.
3. Remove so-called biosecurity measures that operate to suppress exposure of cruelty.
4. Create an effective legal framework to protect people from animal agriculture biosecurity risks.  

Background

Biosecurity means protection from biological agents that are harmful to people, animals or the environment.

Australia has a National Biosecurity Committee which mostly deals with pests and diseases affecting agriculture, while the Federal Department of Health and Aged Care covers human aspects of biosecurity, such as vaccination programs and pandemic readiness plans. Neither of these agencies has a focus on the prevention of new diseases arising, nor on the dangers posed by their subsequent variants. 

Infectious diseases

There are about 1,400 organisms that cause diseases in humans. Almost 60% of these are zoonotic diseases, which means that they infect non-human animals as well as humans. In fact, many of the most devastating diseases that have afflicted humans over the course of history arose from our interactions with other animals: measles comes from the domestication of cows, influenza pandemics from birds and there are many others. More recent examples include SARS (2002), Nipah virus (2009), swine flu (2009) and MERS (2012).

Of course, the most recent pandemic is Covid-19. Although this disease is no longer regarded as a public health emergency, it was the third leading cause of death in Australia in 2022. The origins of the Covid-19 virus are contested, but the leading theory is that it arose from a ‘spillover’ into humans from a natural origin. Whatever the actual cause, the United Nations Environment Program makes it clear that animal agriculture is a huge risk factor for future pandemics. Their report Preventing the next pandemic lists seven drivers of pandemic risk, and the top two are ‘increasing human demand for animal protein’ and ‘unsustainable agricultural intensification’.

One of the reasons that animal agriculture causes pandemics is that it creates opportunities for viruses that normally occur in different species to be hosted together in a single individual, where they can exchange genetic information, occasionally resulting in dangerous new variants. For example, pigs can host flu viruses from both humans and birds, ‘allowing genetic reassortment and the emergence of new viral strains’. Intensive animal operations involve close physical confinement, physiological stress which weakens the immune system, the accumulation of animal wastes and the long-distance transportation of animals, which are additional drivers of disease emergence.

A sometimes overlooked intensive animal industry is farming animals for their skin and fur. The risks here are very high, especially with respect to flu viruses. This industry poses an unacceptable risk for global biosecurity and should be shut down.

In 2022 Australia suffered an outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis, in which 45 people contracted the disease, including 7 who died. The virus that causes this disease lives in pigs and can be passed to humans via mosquitos, and it was detected in over 80 piggeries across four states. A coordinated national response, which included the administration of 125,000 doses of vaccine, was successful in limiting the human impacts in this instance, at a cost of $69 million to the Department of Health and Aged Care alone. 

This tragic and expensive outbreak was a direct result of animal agriculture. 

In many instances, an outbreak of an infectious disease, or suspicion of an outbreak, leads to the mass killing of farmed animals. In 2024, 2.4 million farmed birds were killed as a result of bird flu. It’s not just the number of animals killed that is horrifying but the way in which their lives are ended. Ducks in Australia have been killed by being suffocated with firefighting foam. When panic sets in, best animal welfare practice is abandoned.

Use of medicines in animal agriculture

One of the biggest global problems with animal agriculture, from a human health point of view, is that it relies on the dosing of farmed animals with antibiotics. The antibiotics are given to animals to prevent the spread of disease in the cramped environments in which they live, and also to stimulate their growth. This creates the perfect opportunity for the evolution of disease strains that are resistant to the antibiotics, particularly as the low doses used ‘kill off weak pathogens while inadvertently selecting out the strongest ones’. 

Australia does not have mandatory reporting on the use of antimicrobials in agriculture, despite a government expert task force declaring that ‘the transfer of antibiotic-resistant bacteria along the meat chain is believed to be one of the most significant sources of antibiotic-resistant bacteria from animals’. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to know the precise quantities involved. However, one expert estimate is that 60% of the antimicrobials used in Australia are given to farm animals.

Bird flu and wildlife

Diseases arising from animal agriculture are dangerous for humans but can also be dangerous for non-human animals too. As of May 2025 there is a highly pathogenic form of bird flu that has reached all continents except Australia and is killing birds and mammals of many different species, including humans. The virus is now spreading between mammals, and not just from birds to mammals.

This disease originated amongst farmed geese in China in 1996, then infected other captive birds, before moving into wild bird flocks. It proceeded to spread rapidly throughout Eurasia and North America. Australian animals evolved in isolation, and some seem particularly susceptible to this disease. The effects of it on Australian wildlife, especially on vulnerable and endangered species like seals and sealions, could be catastrophic.

Biosecurity laws

Ag-gag laws aim to prevent animal activists from exposing the truth about how farmed animals are treated. This has the effect of limiting freedom of speech and diminishing transparency. These laws effectively prevent the public from questioning the current treatment and use of farmed animals. The animal agriculture industry relies on the argument that these laws are needed for biosecurity reasons. However, these concerns can be seen as disingenuous considering most activists wear the appropriate PPE and are aware of the need to not visit multiple farms within a short time.      

Relevant Policies

Animal Agriculture Policy

Bats and Flying Foxes

Health

Reviewed:  August 2025