Biosecurity Risks Threaten Agribusiness

Under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, biosecurity is defined as the ‘protection, control, and accountability measures implemented to prevent the loss, theft, misuse, diversion or intentional release of biological agents and toxins, and related resources as well as unauthorised access to, retention, or transfer of such materials’ [1]. This broad, governance‑focused definition reflects the importance of safeguarding biological resources across all sectors – including agribusiness, where biosecurity risks are increasing rapidly. These risks are driven by interrelated factors such as climate change, growing human and animal populations, rising demand for food and advances in science and technology.

Together, these pressures are reshaping how food is produced, transported and consumed, while simultaneously increasing vulnerability to biosecurity failures. A significant breach in biosecurity can trigger a shock event, such as a crop failure resulting from pest infestations. This would not only disrupt the industry but generate a multitude of wider societal (physical and psychological), environmental, economic and political consequences [2]. The 2001 foot and mouth disease outbreak in the United Kingdom provides a clear illustration. This event led to significant economic losses and a decline in tourism, while farmers and local communities experienced social isolation and severe psychological stress due to movement restrictions, mass animal culling and school closures [2,3]. A UK national general election was also postponed as a result.

Vulnerability to these shock events is often exacerbated by economic dependence on cash crops, limited food self-sufficiency, low levels of farm biosecurity combined with large intensive farming systems and inadequate biosecurity monitoring systems [4]. Against this backdrop, this article explores biosecurity risks affecting animals and the environment, and considers how these risks may interact across the food supply chain. As the agribusiness sector is highly interconnected and important, disruption in one area can produce ripple effects throughout entire supply chains.

Biosecurity Risks to Animals

Within the agriculture industry, animals are particularly vulnerable to biosecurity breaches. Risk factors include close confinement with other animals, susceptibility to infectious diseases (especially when there is no herd immunity to exotic diseases unless vaccinated), and the presence of immunocompromised animals. Long-distance transport of livestock further increases vulnerability, as biosecurity breaches allow pathogens to spread over large areas during incubation periods. When breaches occur, transport networks can drive rapid dispersal of pathogens far from the site of origin.

More broadly, the agriculture industry faces growing pressure to boost food and meat production while also reducing land use. Sustainable intensification aims to increase yields while limiting land use and deforestation. However, intensification often involves high-density animal production and the concentration of animal waste. While this approach may reduce land use and deforestation, it can also increase the risk of amplification and emergence of diseases such as avian influenza, particularly when effective biosecurity measures are lacking [5]. Since 1940, an estimated 50% of emerging zoonotic infectious diseases have been linked to agriculture [6]. This alarming figure is only set to increase as agriculture expands and the demand for meat intensifies. Worryingly, this estimate is considered conservative [5].

Food security for an expanding global population is therefore a major priority [7]. But how can we safely increase food and meat production? And how can we effectively implement biosecurity to reduce the risks? We urgently need to address these challenges and find solutions.

Environmental Biosecurity Risks

Biosecurity risks to plants and crops are also on the rise. As in the livestock sector, crop production is under pressure to increase yields while protecting and decreasing land use. Although sustainable intensification may ‘protect’ land by reducing the area used, it can also elevate biosecurity risks by encouraging homogenous crop distributions, heightened dependency on irrigation, as well as increased reliance on agrochemicals [8]. Homogeneous crop distribution increases farm vulnerability by concentrating crops with narrow genetic diversity, making them more susceptible to pathogens.

These challenges intersect with the ‘land sparing versus land sharing’ debate, which revolves around two conflicting approaches to balancing biodiversity conservation and agricultural productivity [9]. Land sparing focuses on intensification to reduce the amount of land used while increasing yield. On the other hand, land sharing promotes wildlife-friendly farming practices that boost densities of wildlife populations on farmland – though this may reduce yields. From a biosecurity perspective, land sharing fosters plant security by increasing the biodiversity of crops. However, from an agricultural perspective, it may hinder production. While land sparing results in smaller, more intensively managed farms, this comes with its own biosecurity concerns, as shock events can spread even more rapidly among concentrated crop systems.

Large-scale farms with inefficient biosecurity measures further increase crop vulnerability. Such operations focus on crop yield and typically have ‘monoculture plantations’ [10], which can increase susceptibility to pests and diseases. The lack of natural protection from crop diversity leads to greater amounts of pesticides and herbicides used, which poses an additional biosecurity risk by disrupting the natural environmental balance.

Climate change compounds these challenges by altering plant disease dissemination patterns via changes in atmospheric circulation like jet streams, and by increasing the frequency of weather shocks that cause crop failures [11,12]. These weather events raise challenging decisions for farmers, such as: is it more economically beneficial to harvest or abandon the fallen crop? The link between crop failure and crop abandonment is a relatively new concept influenced by climate change [13]. In addition, climate change is altering the behaviour and life cycles of agricultural pests [14], which in turn has introduced further biosecurity risks to plants and crops.

Biosecurity Vulnerabilities Across the Food Supply Chain

The food supply chain encompasses all aspects of the agribusiness sector. As a result, threats affecting a single area can produce ripple effects on the rest of the chain. Disruptions have far-ranging impacts, causing disarray to a state’s socioeconomic stability, eroding public trust in government institutions and sparking concerns about preparedness, biosecurity risks, quality control and food safety [1].

Biosecurity risks are heightened by the multiple entry points for contamination and the wide geographical spread of modern food supply chains. Globalised food trade has accelerated food distribution networks, thus leading to a lack of traceability and increased biosecurity risks. The growing prevalence of long-shelf-life products also opens the door to contamination in food processing and retail environments, posing additional challenges for traceability and forensic investigation.

Food-supply chain disruptions can even generate significant psychological impacts on society, creating fear and social panic. Social panic, in turn, can cause rises in anxiety, depression, insomnia and irrational behaviours, such as excessive food hoarding, with some individuals exhibiting symptoms akin to post-traumatic stress disorder [15].

Strengthening Biosecurity Through Education and Coordination

Biosecurity risks in the agribusiness sector are evolving in response to climate change, population growth and the pressure to increase food production while reducing land use. Whether the pathogens are introduced naturally or deliberately, the consequences can trigger a multitude of societal, environmental, economic and political impacts. All these combined with the food supply chain’s many possible contamination points and wide geographical spread make it a vulnerable target for those seeking to cause harm or make a profit.

The growing biosecurity concerns facing the agribusiness sector underscore the need for effective biosecurity education. However, significant gaps remain, not least a neglect of biosecurity concepts in education and insufficient attention to the broader consequences of biosecurity failures. Establishing a sustainable, globally coordinated educational network is therefore essential to address these gaps, strengthen biosecurity capacity and support the development of impactful risk management strategies.

Main image: ©SDI Productions, Getty Images

References

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