Veterinary Medicine: Animal Wealth and Ecosystem

Importance of Animal Wealth

• Animals play a vital role in maintaining healthy habitats through services like pollination and seed dispersal.
• Despite their importance, the rate of animal extinction is accelerating, with one million species currently threatened with extinction.

Animal Food Products

• Animal food products provide essential nutrients to humans that are not available from plants or are present in lower quantities.
• Eliminating animal products from the human diet would limit adequate essential nutrition for populations, especially vulnerable groups like young, pregnant, and lactating women, older adults, and the metabolically challenged.

Livestock Farming

• Only 14% of dry matter ingested by livestock is edible to humans, with animals converting the remaining 86% non-edible biomass into highly nutritious food and manure.
• Livestock farming produces food on 57% of land that cannot be directly used for crops, providing ecosystems services.
• Animal production, particularly herbivores, contribute to food security by valorizing grazing marginal land that cannot produce plant products.

Global Impact of Livestock

• According to FAO data, livestock contributes to nearly 40% of total agricultural output in developed countries and about 20% in developing ones, supporting the livelihoods of at least 1.3 billion people worldwide and providing about 34% of global food protein.
• The global livestock market has significant economic value, with live animals being the world's 71st most traded product in 2021, with a total trade of $25.2 billion.

Market Values of Animal Products

• The global dairy market was estimated to be about 893 billion U.S. dollars in 2022 and is projected to grow to 1,243 billion dollars by 2028.
• The global meat sector was estimated to value at 897 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 and is forecast to increase to 1354 billion dollars by 2027.
• The global seafood market reached a value of over 257 billion U.S. dollars in 2022 and is projected to reach about 350 billion dollars by 2027.
• The global poultry market grew from $352.02 billion in 2022 to $378.84 billion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6%.
• The global eggs market is expected to grow annually by 8.47% (CAGR 2024-2028), with revenue amounting to US$130.70 billion in 2024.
• The global value added in the animal leather and related products market is projected to amount to US$55.91 billion in 2024.