EPIVALUECHAINS.COM

With consumer demand for meat consumption around the world projected to grow over the coming decades, livestock production continue its upward trajectory. Across continents, much of this livestock and their products make their way to consumers via marketplaces, with tens of thousands of livestock, live-bird (LBM), camel, and wildlife markets present throughout Asia and Africa. As a result of increasing livestock populations, the number and size of these markets will also need to expand. Importantly however, markets are considered a ‘hotspot' of disease amplificati on along value chains because they facilitate the mixing of a high volume of animals and species from different origins in a single location. Because marketplaces are also a place of human congregation they also present a high-risk location for zoonotic pathogen transmission. As a result of these factors, improved methods to combat the role markets play in the spread of diseases will become increasingly important.