New World Screwworm, HPAI Underscore Importance of Food Animal Health, Animal Disease Surveillance Efforts

Jun 17, 2026

By Mary Hightower

The return of New World screwworm to the United States and the global struggle against highly pathogenic avian influenza demonstrate the importance of disease surveillance to protect food animal health, a team of agricultural economists said.

With the emergence of foot-and-mouth, “mad cow” disease and other epidemics, global animal agriculture has seen its share of losses over the decades.

Earlier this month New World Screwworm was confirmed in Texas and New Mexico after being largely eradicated from the United States in the 1960s. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said screwworm does not pose a threat to the food system.

The consequences of how those diseases are tracked and contained front and center in “Lessons Learned in U.S. Animal Disease Surveillance for Commercial and Smallholder Systems in the Twenty-First Century,” an article from “Choices. The magazine of food, farm and resource issues,” published by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

Eruption of diseases in agriculture requires tailored responses, said Amy Hagerman, Oklahoma State University associate professor and extension specialist for agriculture and food policy. Hagerman was lead author on the article.

Source : uada.edu

Video: Biosecurity Compliance - Dr. Jean-Pierre Vaillancourt

In this episode of The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, Dr. Jean-Pierre Vaillancourt, professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Montreal, discusses the human side of biosecurity compliance. He explains why protocols often fail when people are tired, unconvinced, undertrained, or working with impractical systems, and how leadership, employee input, technology, feedback, and small incentives can make biosecurity more consistent on swine farms. Listen now on all major platforms!

"Biosecurity only works when people repeatedly do the right thing, and that means the system has to support compliance every day."

Meet the guest: Dr. Jean-Pierre Vaillancourt is a veterinarian and professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Montreal. His work focuses on biosecurity, infectious disease control, and practical risk reduction in animal production systems, with experience across swine and poultry health. Learn more from Dr. Jean-Pierre Vaillancourt on The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, available on all major platforms.