This paper examines the role of livestock products as commodities of trade, responding to the demand and higher prices that many external markets offer, and at the same time providing important contributions to the development process in poorer countries. It highlights that this opportunity is not without its threats: much of the Western world has, over the last half-century, in particular, invested substantial amounts of money in controlling and eradicating many infectious diseases of livestock, and in building up healthy and highly productive animals, the products derived from which earn them very large sums of money on world markets. Such countries are not willing to take risks that could threaten their livestock industries and their domestic and export markets that maintain high animal health and food safety standards.
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