Issue AI animal health tools favouring large farms over smallholders

Summary

Among the longer-term uncertainties for animal disease, the report presents both the opportunity and the divide that AI could bring. AI technologies could help predict, monitor, detect and treat animal diseases. The report judges, however, that the gains might go mainly to larger farms while smallholders struggle to keep up. It explains that disease threats to biodiversity and agriculture hit rural areas disproportionately and that agricultural workers face a higher risk from many zoonotic diseases. As an example of support, the report cites the 2023 Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, which funds farmers to improve biosecurity and manage endemic disease.