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Protecting animal ag from foreign disease outbreaks

Protecting animal agriculture from foreign animal disease outbreaks.

Dr. Kelli Werling with Indiana’s State Board of Animal Health says a foreign animal disease outbreak would be detrimental to exports and the overall ag economy. 

“Trade partners might not choose to take our product anymore and we can’t export that product, then there could be a flooding of that on our domestic markets,” she says. “Which can also effect the whole supply and demand curve.”

She tells Brownfield bio-surveillance is the first step in protecting an operation from a potential outbreak.

“That’s things like our producers noticing when something’s not right in their animal populations and reaching out to a veterinarian and letting them know,” she says. “Maybe you don’t know what’s wrong, but something’s not quite right, so we can investigate that and determine if there’s something of a reportable disease going on.”

Werling says implementing strong biosecurity measures is the best way to prevent the spread of disease.

Brownfield interviewed Werling during the 2025 Indiana Ag Threats and Security Summit in Carmel, Indiana.

AUDIO: Kelli Werling, Indiana’s State Board of Animal Health