[The world-wide importance of animal epidemics (author's transl)].

At present, roughly 64 million horses, 1.2 billion cattle, 1 billion sheep, 670 million pigs and some billion fowl are kept and large quantities of animal products are produced. Animal breeding still varies widely with regard to both geographical distribution and efficiency. The protection of animal keeping in all countries of the world from losses due to disease and protein deficiency as the main cause of malnutrition constitutes an economical and sanitary problem of primary importance. Veterinary medicine is called upon to help to solve it. The losses (direct and indirect) of animals caused by infectious and invasive disease are extremely high. All in all, the losses of animals due to diseases have been reduced by 15 to 20 per cent of the gross production in many countries, and they can be reduced further. However, in countries with less efficient stock farming, losses run into 30 to 40 per cent and, if no control measures are adopted, are likely to increase considerably. Communicable animal diseases can be propagated over large distances in many ways by direct or indirect routes. As public interests are involved, the diseases must be controlled by measures financed by the state. In the light of the multivarious economic interconnections between the countries of the world, cooperation on an international basis is thus needed.