On Wednesday, 28 May 2025, GBADs and DECIDE hosted the eighth official seminar in their collaborative webinar series titled “Quantifying the Impact of Animal Disease.” The session brought together experts from various disciplines to discuss the importance of measuring and managing the impact of animal disease on livestock systems and the environment.
Professor Ilias Kyriazakis, from Queen’s University Belfast, opened the session and presented on “Improve animal health to reduce livestock emissions: quantifying an open goal.” He explored how improved animal health management can directly contribute to reducing emissions from livestock, highlighting the connections between disease control and environmental sustainability.
Dr Di Mayberry, Principal Research Scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia, followed with a presentation on “Integrating greenhouse gas emissions into the Global Burden of Animal Diseases – Indonesian case study.” Her research focuses on sustainable livestock systems and the need to account for emissions in disease burden assessments, using data from Indonesia as a case study.
Dr Angela Bearth, Senior Scientist at HF Partners, concluded the session with her talk on “Designing dashboards for risk communication and decision support to improve animal health – Insights from the social sciences.” She highlighted the role of effective communication tools in supporting risk management and decision-making processes in animal health.
Although at first glance the topics of the presentations might have seemed distinct, the session demonstrated how these different perspectives intersect in addressing the broader challenges of animal health, environmental sustainability, and risk management. The session was well received by attendees, with positive feedback highlighting the relevance and quality of the content shared.
A heartfelt thank you to our speakers for their insightful presentations and to Gerdien van Schaik for expertly moderating the session.
The next GBADs & DECIDE webinar is planned for autumn 2025, with details to be announced. We look forward to continuing the conversation and building on the insights from this session.